A Tale Of Three Foxes
by TheCursed54
Summary: Two foxes escape from the Death Egg and appear in the town where Sonic and the crew live. Kyro, Lily and Tails set off to their hometown to see if an ancient legend is true, only to be cursed and wander the lands of the south, as enemies of the world.
1. Kyro's Arrival

Sonic characters belong with SEGA, only the customs belong to me and the story.

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Chapter 1 : Kyro's Arrival

Tails was walking along town watching the townspeople, knowing what will happen to them.

("_I will eventually destroy your little town! You tell your little friends about this and I'll make things worse for you!")_

Those sentences made by Eggman when he last captured Tails made him shudder. He wondered if he should talk to Sonic about this when he comes back from his search for the last chaos emerald.

_No………The town will be destroyed by the time Sonic comes back. Shadow on the other hand………._

He pondered this thought for a little while until he suddenly felt light-headed.

_I need to sit down…._

Tails spotted a set of seats next to the park, he sat down and started pondering more on whether or not to tell Shadow about his kidnapping and Eggman's plans to destroy the town.

_Wait a second…I heard him talking about something else while I was being beaten…Grr……What did he say?_

Tails left the current thought because there were more pressing matters at hand.

_Yes, I should tell Shadow, he'll understand. Maybe on the way I'll be able to piece out what Eggman said after I was beaten._

Tails stood up after he made his decision to tell Shadow of Eggman's intentions. He started walking along the sidewalk but there was one problem Tails overlooked.

_Where could he be found though? Who knows where he'd be._

Tails thought about that problem and declared "Maybe I should leave a note at his house, however, I'll have to place the note inside his house. Everyone could see it and then panic, I can't let that happen. But he's barely ever in his house though…..How will I get him in there?" He thought about this new problem when all of a sudden…

BANG!

Tails looked in surprise at the direction in which the loud sound was heard, and started running in that direction. He kept on running even though he was exhausted. He was curious as to what that sound was. He kept running until he was met by a surprise. It was a broken escape pod. "That's odd, things like this don't normally happen…." When all of a sudden the pod opened and a blue fox appeared stumbling out of the pod, he was bloodied up from the sudden impact of the pod with the ground, he had diamond light blue eyes. He was wearing a dark red jacket and dark red and black shoes, he also had two blood-stained black daggers with dark red handles and his gloves of course were white. His pants were black and short. He had 11 bangs hanging over his head. He also had two twin appendages, like Tails but he hadn't noticed yet.

He was having trouble standing up. Tails rushed over to the cobalt fox and helped him up. "Are you alright?!" Tails asked, his voice filled with concern for the injured kitsune.

"Ugh……….ugh…" the fox suddenly started coughing up blood. Tails was even more concerned for him now. The injured fox put his hand on his forehead to fight back his throbbing pain.

"Are you ok?! Can you hear me?!" Tails asked now starting to panic.

"Guh……………nngh……" The fox couldn't make up a sentence due to his unbearable pain. They stood there for a few minutes when the fox's pain subsided and took his hand away from his forehead.

"Are you alright now?" Tails calmly asked.

"……..Y-Yeah………..I'm……I'm fine…….." The fox replied.

"Are you sure you're ok? Your cuts……they're very deep…" Tails started getting concerned again.

"N-Nothing I………..Nothing I….can't….cover……" The fox replied looking over his wounds.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Tails asked. The cobalt fox held his hand out.

"Cure!" The fox yelled out. Tails was about to say something but a white light cut him off. This ball shaped light started spiraling around the injured fox. Then all of a sudden, his wounds started closing.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?!" Tails stared in surprise.

"I….I have an ancient power, that allows me to use something called White Magic. Do you know what White Magic is?" The fox replied.

"Yeah, I read about ancient magic. It comes in five different categories. White Magic involves the powers of healing and holy attacks. Black Magic involves the elemental spells. Time Magic involves spells that can alter the movement of time to a target. Green Magic involves status inducing magic spells. And Arcane Magic involves the dark arts and some status inducing spells." Tails replied to the question.

"Very good, what I did was a basic healing spell, it closes my wounds and replenishes my blood supply, so I can survive every battle." The fox said.

"So, what's your name?" Tails asked.

"Me? My name's Kyro, what about you?" Kyro replied.

"My name is Miles Prower, but you can just call me Tails." Tails requested.

"Alright…Tails." Kyro immediately acknowledged the young fox's request.

"Nice daggers." Tails complimented referring to the pair of sheathed daggers on Kyro's back and lower back.

"Thanks. They both have special powers, they were family heirlooms for many generations, I feel honored to wield the blades of my ancestors." Kyro responded. All of a sudden Kyro felt a slightly higher amount of heat on his back.

"I know Faran, I can feel it too…" Kyro said with his right hand clutching the handle of the dagger sheathed on his back. He cautiously started looking around, his left hand went for the blade sheathed on his belt. He started pacing.

"Is something wrong Kyro?" Tails asked in confusion.

_Why is Kyro acting like this?_

"There's evil afoot. Faran can feel it, and so can I…" Kyro replied still pacing, his hands had a firm grip on his daggers.

"Who's Faran?" Tails asked.

"Faran is the name of the dagger on my back. It can sense evil powers allowing me to be more alert against my enemies, it can also sense hostility in creatures." Kyro replied.

"But there's usually no one evil around these parts…….Unless……." Tails cut himself off when a black hedgehog suddenly emerged out of the shadows of the forest. Kyro readied himself for battle when Tails interrupted. "No! Kyro don't attack!" Tails pleaded.

"But Faran tells me he's showing a lot of hostility and evil powers!" Kyro responded.

"He was created to be like that, weren't you Shadow?" Tails asked the black hedgehog.

"Well…….I guess you could put it that way….if you want." Shadow replied with a quiet tone.

"Created?" Kyro asked letting go of his daggers and getting out of his battle stance.

"I was created as 'The Ultimate Life Form' by Professor Gerald on Space Colony Ark and then G.U.N discovered us…….and poor Maria…" Shadow explained and came to a sudden pause.

"She must've meant a lot to you…" Kyro responded.

"She did………I…" Shadow tried to finish the sentence before Tails interrupted.

"Let's trail away from that subject for a little while…." Tails cut in. Both Shadow and Kyro nodded.

"So what brings you here Tails? You're not usually out of the town by yourself, and who is this?" Shadow turned to Tails.

"Shoot! I almost forgot! Shadow, something terrible is about to happen in the city!" Tails replied.

"Why are you telling me this? I couldn't care less about that town." Shadow said coldly.

"But Shadow! You're the only one who can stop Eggman right now!" Tails pleaded.

"Hmph! I'm not getting involved." Shadow responded.

"But many innocent lives could be lost! And…And you don't care?!" Tails argued.

"Why don't you?!" Shadow snapped. "You're always relying on other people to save the world but you don't take matters into your own hands!"

"But…….I'm not strong enough…..That's why! I want to! But I'll just fail! Okay?! Is that a good enough reason for you?!" Tails shouted.

"You're showing a lot of hostility Tails, you need to settle down…" Kyro requested. "I can help you, if you need it."

"….You……You will?" Tails asked calmly. "But you probably don't know who Eggman is or where his base is."

"He's going to hurt innocent people, that's a good enough motive to stop him, if you can tell me where his base is, I'll stop him for you." Kyro calmly replied. "But I'll need you to come with me."

"A……….Alright…." Tails responded. He then turned to Shadow. "I'm sorry I snapped at you……I just got a bit angry…."

"You want to prove yourself, I can feel it." Kyro cut in.

"……Yes….I do, how did you know?" Tails asked.

"I can read the thoughts and emotions flowing through one person if I focus hard enough." Kyro replied. "That's how I felt your hostility and anger earlier. You're sick of being the sidekick, you want to save the world yourself. But you feel like you're too weak to try."

"Wow, you really can read my thoughts! I've never known anyone who could do that!" Tails said in amazement.

"By the way, I do know who Eggman is. I was his prisoner on the so-called Death Egg. What a terrible name!" Kyro added. Tails nodded in agreement and smiled at Kyro, Kyro smiled back. "I just hope she made it out okay…" Kyro said looking at the morning sky.

"Who are you talking about?" Tails asked politely.

"My friend, she was a prisoner too. I hope she made it out okay…" Kyro replied.

"What's her name?" Tails asked curiously.

"Her name is L…" Kyro paused.

_No I can't tell them her real name…….I promised her…._

"Kyro? Is everything alright?" Tails asked concerned.

"Yes, everything's fine. Her name is Ivory…" Kyro replied quietly. "She has pink fur with blue streaks in her hair, Ivory thinks part of my spirit is bonded with hers when she added the streaks so in a way, I'm always with her."

"That's very nice." Tails politely responded.

"Yeah, I have strands of her pink hair tied to Faran, she thought if our souls were combined, we'd be able to fight on." Kyro explained.

"That's an encouraging thought, maybe me and Sonic should do that, so we wouldn't have to feel alone when we are away from each other." Tails suggested.

"It's a way we feel safe and strong when someone we care about is away from us. We both have blue and pink necklaces too. She wears a no sleeve jacket, short skirt and she has a gun blade and a pistol with the ability to shoot bullets of fire that she can create." Kyro added. Shadow's attention turned to the sound of rattling bushes. "You sense something is amiss Shadow, don't be alarmed, it's just a normal squirrel." Kyro assured Shadow. Shadow turned back to the rattling bushes and out came a normal squirrel just like Kyro inquired, Shadow couldn't believe it. How did he know? Kyro turned to the squirrel and took his bag off and reached in to find some nuts and gave it to the squirrel. "Here you go little fella." Kyro said with a smile on his face. The squirrel contently ate the nuts and scurried off up a tree and caused Kyro to smile even more. "Mother Nature is good at her hard work isn't she Tails? We should thank her." Kyro turned to Tails.

"Yes she is, we should be really thankful for her work." Tails humbly agreed. His gentleness towards that little squirrel caused Tails to smile.

"When you actually focus your sights on nature, it's absolutely fantastic! Don't you agree Tails?" Kyro asked the young kit.

"Yeah, I always look out of the window in the morning to feel the cool breeze brush against my fur and look at the beautiful morning." Tails replied.

"That's why I want to fight Eggman, so the world will still be beautiful and not destroyed by petty machines!" Kyro said.

"Let's go then! Goodbye Shadow!" Tails waved at Shadow and grabbed Kyro's arm dragging him off back to the town.

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Ivory awoke after being knocked unconscious by the sudden impact of the pod and the ground and looked up to find where she was. She saw Eggman's logo stuck to a metal wall. "This is definitely his base, I hope Kyro made it out okay…" She said holding onto her blue necklace.

(_"This is our only chance of escaping! We must hurry, I'll try to look for you, but don't worry! We will be back together, I promise Lily!"_)

Lily shuddered at her real name, after her parents died when Eggman attacked her hometown, she threw away her real name and henceforth she named herself 'Ivory' she never wanted to remember her parents after that dreadful day, she only gave Kyro permission to use her real name. Kyro is pretty much her only family left. "I should pay the doctor a visit…" Lily said coldly running to find the entrance. She met a couple of robots along the way, she drew her sword. The robots came rushing at her, Lily did a side flip to dodge the metallic hostiles and rushed towards her enemies. She slashed at one of them, cutting off the robot's head as the aftermath the other robot stopped quickly and Lily easily cut off the other robots head in the middle of it's hesitation. "Hmph! Easy!" Lily boasted running off to find the entrance of Eggman's base. She eventually found a massive door with Eggman's logo. "Hmmm, no entering that way is a deathtrap, usually I'd do it anyway but if it's his main base, it wouldn't exactly be a winning option for me…" Lily pondered on this thought when suddenly she felt a strong rush of wind flow past her causing her to draw her sword. "Who's there?! Show yourself you coward?!" Lily shouted.

"Jeez, you don't need to shout." A voice complained, then suddenly Lily felt another rush of wind then a blue hedgehog stood right in front of her. She put her sword back in it's scabbard.

"Are you……Sonic the Hedgehog?" Lily calmly asked.

"The one and only! What brings you here to ol Egghead's base?" Sonic asked.

"I'm going to punish him for keeping us in that god forsaken place!" Lily angrily replied.

"He's much too dangerous for you to handle…" Sonic joked.

"Why? Because I'm a girl, well I'm going to have to show you what happen when you underestimate me." Lily cracked a smile drawing out her sword.

"Now isn't that a little unfair?" Sonic joked.

"Hmph! Would you rather me go easy on you?" Lily laughed.

"You're really asking for it aren't ya?" Sonic said getting annoyed.

"It's a simple question, do you want me to go easy on you or not?" Lily asked calmly.

"Fine! Take your best shot!" Sonic laughed. "This is going to be super easy!" Sonic rushed at Lily at his average speed, Lily front flipped out of his way and turned towards the speedy hedgehog. Sonic rushed again, she easily dodged the dash.

"Gosh, you're so predictable! At this rate you'll wear yourself out and you'll be open for attack." Lily laughed. Sonic started up a spin-dash and went at Lily in full force, she just stood there and suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks. Lily saw this as an opportunity and slashed at Sonic and Sonic trying to dodge as fast as he can, but Lily saw where he was going and slashed in that opposite direction and cut Sonic's arm.

"Ouch! Gah…..You're better than I thought but now it's my turn!" Sonic complimented and threw some punches at her, she dodged them at lightning quick speeds and slashed him once again cutting the left side of his stomach. "Ack! You have super quick reflexes!" Sonic complimented as he clutched his fresh wound.

"It's because I actually focus, no matter how easy I think the target is. Your cockiness loosened your fighting ability. Seriously Sonic, I thought you'd be better than that!" Lily smirked.

"Your weapon put you at a advantage!" Sonic complained.

"Please, I would've beaten you anyway!" Lily boasted.

"Alright then! Let's test that theory then!" Sonic exclaimed getting back into his fighting stance.

"Hmph! Fine!" Lily agreed to the challenge putting her sword back in it's sheathe. Sonic rushed at Lily and she easily dodged it.

_Just like last time huh? This is going to be easier than I thought but I musn't lose focus!_

Sonic stared at Lily and just stood there. For a few minutes in fact. Sonic getting impatient, rushed back at Lily with a fist readied for contact. Lily did a dodge roll and grabbed Sonic's arm and stood up, pulled him to her back and flipped him causing him to land hard on the ground.

"What? Did you expect an attack from me during those past few minutes. I would've if I didn't know what you were like." Lily laughed and pulled Sonic up and swung him around. Letting go of her grip on Sonic's hand and sent him flying towards a tree. The impact caused him to shout in pain as his back met with the tree. Lily then rushed over to Sonic. "Are you ok?" Lily asked.

"I'm fine!" Sonic replied coldly.

"Now you see? Your cockiness got the best of you again…However you've done better than most people who've gone against me. They weren't even fast enough to do make the first attack!" Lily laughed. "Now if you'd excuse me, I've got to pay a visit to Dr. Eggman."

"I'll come with you, Shadow told me that he was going to destroy my home town and I can't let that happen!" Sonic said.

"…….Alright." Lily agreed and ran off with Sonic to the entrance of the doctor's base. Sonic tried kicking it open once they arrived.

"Damn! This thing is really strong!" Sonic panted.

"Let me try." Lily suggested. Sonic nodded stepping back, Lily stepped towards the door and too started to kick the door open. It too was no use.

"Let's go around another way…This is hopeless and pointless!" Sonic responded to their failing of prying the door open.

"No, let's both do it at the same time. With both our strengths combined, we should be able to get it open." Lily suggested. Sonic nodded in agreement and stepped up to the door. "3…….2…….1……Now!" Lily shouted as they both kicked the door at full force causing a large dint in the door. Lily finished the job by getting out her sword and slashing at the door. "Good! We're in!" Lily sighed in relief wiping off a few sweat beads. The pair rushed into the base and Lily looked around. "It's quiet……." Lily drew her sword and scanned the lobby.

"A bit…..too quiet……." Sonic agreed. Lily was still pacing the room. Until she noticed something peculiar.

"Wait a minute…." Lily said as she looked through the odd corridor and as she thought, a large number of robots were heading through it. Lily rushed back into the middle of the lobby. "It's as I thought! He expected us to enter after our little duel! Then planned an ambush as soon as we entered the lobby!"

"That was awfully nice of Egghead." Sonic said sarcastically. The robots immediately circled the pair of anthromorphs and Lily got into her fighting stance while Sonic did the same. "We're heavily outnumbered! We'll never make it!"

"Well if we're going to die anyway, we might as well go down fighting!" Lily assured as she went and started cutting down a few of the robots. Sonic sighed and then started doing the same.

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Tails and Kyro arrived outside of the base not noticing the small hole in the door. "If Eggman hasn't changed his location then he should be here." Tails said pointing at the large building. Kyro felt a warm calm feeling on his back.

"You are sure she is here Faran?" Kyro asked the dagger sheathed on his back and clutching it.

"Who?" Tails asked in curiosity.

"Ivory…..Faran says she is here, and….someone else…" Kyro replied.

_Could it be Sonic? Well what are you waiting for Tails?! Go in there and find him!_

Tails rushed to the door of the base after pondering this new thought. "Tails, wait!" Kyro shouted and ran after him.

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That's the end of Chapter 1! Hope you liked it! Review fairl and no flaming would be dearly appreciated. Chapter 2 is on it's way soon!

^_^ - TheCursed54


	2. Reunion

Chapter 2 : Reunion

Kyro ran after Tails after he rushed into Eggman's base. "Tails! What are you doing?!?" Kyro asked the rushing orange kitsune.

"I have a feeling that Sonic is in here!" Tails replied, Tails noticed the giant hole in the door. "Good! A way in! Hurry!" Tails shouted at the cobalt fox. Tails slipped through the hole. Kyro closely followed. When the two went through the hole, the two kitsunes noticed Lily and Sonic fighting through the multitude of Eggman's robots. Tails rushed to the pair of struggling anthromorphs.

"Tails! Wait!" Kyro cried as the orange kitsune ran to help. Kyro followed and got out his two daggers and started cutting through the robots. Tails grabbed a laser pistol from one of the robots and started to shoot at the robots. However, Tails occupied with his current enemies in front, he did not think about the ones behind. "Tails! Behind you!" Kyro warned, but it was too late. One of the robots grabbed onto Tails causing him to drop his pistol and another grabbed him and sliced his arm with one of it's attached claws causing the young kit to yelp in pain. Kyro ignored his current enemies and ran towards the struggling fox. The robot currently swinging at Tails managed to create another cut, this time on Tails' left tail, causing Tails to yell in pain. Kyro sliced the robot's head off and pushed it off the injured kit. "Tails, are you alright?" Kyro asked concerned.

"Nngh….I've been better…" Tails replied clutching onto his arm. "Let's not worry about it now…There are more pressing matters at hand!" Tails grabbed the laser pistol that was dropped by the sudden attack, and retreived the claws from the metal body that resulted in his injuries and went back into fighting. Kyro did the same and the robots began to circle the group of anthromorphs. Lily only just noticing her childhood friend ran over to him.

"Kyro? Is that you?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"I always keep my word." Kyro replied smiling. Lily smiled back and then her face quickly turned to concern when more of the doctor's robots rushed through the corridors of the base.

"Oh perfect……" Sonic said sarcastically and backed up to bump into a familiar kitsune.

"Sonic?" Tails asked but did not take his eyes off his enemies.

"Tails? What are you doing here?" Sonic asked doing the same.

"I'm sorry! I haven't seen you in a long time, I guess I got a little sidetracked." Tails apologized.

"Hey, it's fine buddy, I'll create a pathway while you get out of here. Okay?" Sonic repsonded. Tails looked at Sonic and nodded. "Good! Then let's do this!" Sonic yelled going into a spin dash and aimed for the door. In an instant, Sonic sped through the hundreds of robots, destroying them one-by-one allowing Tails to run towards the exit. "Alright, we'll meet at your house is that alright?" Sonic asked.

"Yup! I'll see you in a little while Sonic!" Tails replied swirling his tails to fly.

"Stay safe little bro." Sonic said before turning back to the robots and found Lily and Kyro struggling against them. Sonic did another spin-dash to bring down the numbers, but only slightly. And in an instant, Sonic was back with the pair of kitsunes. The trio of anthromorphs continued fighting through the multitude of robots. Some of them started to go outside of the base. "What the? Why are they leaving the base?" Sonic asked himself. "Wait…………" Sonic stopped.

"Why are you stopping?! They won't kill themselves!" Lily shouted.

"……….Oh no….." Sonic looked out of the large hole in the door. "Tails!" Sonic shouted as he sped off out of the base.

Lily sighed "Ugh…..Idiot…." Lily remarked. "Oh well, at least he won't be in the way…" Lily continued slashing. After half an hour of compulsive fighting, it was finally over. "Finally!" Lily sighed in relief.

"Is Sonic there?" came a familiar voice from the hole in the door of the base.

"No Tails, he went off to look for you…" Kyro replied sheathing his daggers.

"Why would he look for me?" Tails asked confused.

"Well, he saw some of the robots walk out of the door, and he was worried about you." Lily replied.

"So he'll be back…" Tails said with a disappointed tone.

"Unfortunately, yes." Lily said in annoyance. "We musn't waste time, we must hurry!" Lily declared starting to look for a way up.

"Follow me, I know this base from the back of my head." Tails said starting to run through the west corridor. Lily and Kyro looked at each other.

"Can we trust him Kyro?" Lily asked.

"He seems like a nice kid Lily. I don't think he'll lead us into a trap." Kyro replied as he started to follow the young kit. Lily stood there for a moment and followed closely. Tails ran past the stairway, going further into the corridor. "Tails? There's a stairway here." Kyro said confused.

"There's a crawlspace leading into a vent which I can fly up. Oh……right….You guys can't fly…." Tails stopped.

"We can fly Tails. Or didn't you notice our two tails." Kyro laughed. Tails turned around to confirm if it was true, and it was. Two twin appendages were curling around the two foxes.

"Then that will make things a lot easier. A whole lot easier." Tails chuckled as he continued on towards the secret shortcut. The other foxes followed closely. They eventually approached the little crawlspace.

"Are you sure we'll be able to fit through that?" Lily asked.

"Of course! If I can fit through, I'm sure you'll be able to." Tails chuckled. He got into a commando crawl and started squeezing through the little hole. He managed to fit through until. "Oh, perfect…" Tails said sarcastically looking back and his feet were stuck. "Um…….Can someone take my shoes off please?" Tails asked. Kyro chuckled and took the young kit's shoes off allowing him to slip through the crawlspace. Tails now on the other side of the crawlspace got into a normal crawling position. "You guys are going to have to do the same. Could you slide under my shoes?" Tails asked.

"Oh…right…" Kyro chuckled and slid Tails' shoes under the space.

"Thanks." Tails replied and put his shoes back on. "Hurry up guys." Tails said crawling through the vent.

"After you Ivory." Kyro said.

"Alright…" Lily replied slipping her shoes off and sliding the under the space. "Here goes." Lily easily slid through the space with no trouble at all. "Hmph! Easy!" Lily sighed in relief putting her shoes back on and crawling after Tails. Kyro took his shoes off and did the same. The trio eventually reached a space that went upwards. Tails swirled his namesakes and flew upwards. Kyro and Lily did the same. Tails stopped when he reached a certain vent and was crawling through it. The other two kitsunes did the same. After five minutes of crawling through the vent. They were there, Eggman's main office. "Allow me." Lily whispered. Tails crawled back allowing Lily to crawl up to the vent grate and kicked it down. The three anthromorphs immediately jumped down from the grate.

"What is the meaning of all this?!" Eggman shouted and turned around. "What?! How did you freaks get in here?!" Eggman demanded.

"Eggman! You're trying to destroy the town! I won't allow it!" Tails replied aggresively.

Eggman laughed hysterically "Oh….You think you can stop me?!" Eggman said in between chuckles.

"The three of us will stop you!" Hearing this Eggman stopped laughing. And noticed the other two foxes.

"What?! How did you two escape?!" Eggman demanded.

"We're smarter than you think Eggman." Lily replied.

"We will stop you!" Tails said aggresively. Eggman clicked his fingers and robots immediately showed up beside Eggman. Kyro and Lily looked at each other and nodded and started attacking the robots. Noticing this distraction, Tails snuck off and accessed the main computer. The young fox managed to delete all the files and shutdown the missile launch. "Yes! You won't be able to destroy the town now!" Tails yelled in accomplishment. Eggman, skeptical on this last statement turned around to the computer to realise that Tails was not lying.

"WHAT?!?" Eggman bellowed. Tails walked back to the window. "It's a long way down Tails, you sure you want to do that?" Eggman stood up and walked slowly over to Tails.

"I'll meet you guys back at the town, Kyro you know where it is right?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, stay safe Tails." Kyro replied. Tails nodded and jumped out of the window, forgetting that the window was closed. He injured himself in the process. Tails managed to maintain his fall and landed normally on the ground. Tails winced in pain looking through to find shards of glass inside of him with blood dripping down. He pulled every glass shard out, wincing in pain after each one. After all of the shards were finally out. Tails stood up.

"I'm going to have to ask Kyro to fix this up…" Tails chuckled and started heading towards the town.

-----

Kyro and Lily defeated all of the robots that Eggman sent out. "I swear, you make your robots all the same. Same weak metallic body." Kyro remarked.

"What do you want?!" Eggman demanded.

"For you to pay for your mistake!" Lily shouted and pinned him against the chair. "You killed all those people! And my father……YOU KILLED MY FATHER!!!" Lily screamed in complete and udder anger. Lily got out her sword and stabbed Eggman, only to find that it was a robot. Lily noticing this screamed in anger and sliced off the robot's head. "YOU BASTARD!!!" Lily screamed.

"Lily, Lily calm down." Kyro said.

"He took everything away from us…." Lily said crying. "How can you be calm?!" Lily asked angrily.

"You're right…… Kyro replied embracing Lily in a soft comforting hug. "We shouldn't dwell in the past, it's just too painful…"

"You're right, I'm just so angry…." Lily responded between sobs.

"It's alright………Everything's okay…" Kyro consoled, he could feel tears well up inside. He tried his hardest not to let them out. He let go of her. "Come on, let's go back to town…Tails is waiting for us…" Kyro said looking out the window. "I wouldn't be able to find our way back out the window…Maybe the vent…." Kyro thought aloud.

"Our best bet is to go through the vent, we at least know the way then." Lily suggested.

"Indeed, let's go." Kyro replied flying up towards the vent, Lily doing the same.

-----

Sonic rushed towards Tails' house, his injuries prevented him from going his super speed.

_I hope Tails is alright…_

Sonic eventually reached the young kit's house and knocked on he door. "Tails? It's me Sonic! Open up!" Sonic said hoping Tails opened the door. However, that did not happen. "Tails?" Sonic got worried about Tails and walked around the house to find an open window, however all of them were closed and locked. "Damnit! I wasn't fast enough!" Sonic exclaimed punching the wall of his buddy's house.

"Sonic?" A familiar voice asked. Sonics ear shot up and he turned around to find his adopted little bro in more than a few cuts.

"Tails? What happened to you?" Sonic asked his injuried buddy.

"Oh……uh….." Tails was thinking of a good reason to wriggle out of this one. "I kind of…..uh….lost my footing….and I….uh…..fell down a rocky hill…." Tails scratched his head in fake embarresment. However, Sonic saw straight through this.

"You were at the base weren't you…" Sonic interrogated.

"Uh…….No…..Why do you ask?" Tails tried to hide the fact that Sonic was correct.

"Tails, why are you lying to me?" Sonic pressed.

"I'm not lying!" Tails replied getting defensive.

"You are Tails, stop trying to hide it!" Sonic snapped. Tails flinched at the sudden increase of Sonic's voice volume.

"………Yes…..I was……." Tails was frightened by Sonic's voice.

"Why would you do that?! I was worried sick!" Sonic snapped causing Tails to flinch again.

"I'm sorry! I felt like I needed to do something about Eggman's attack on the town!" Tails apologized backing away from Sonic.

"………….I'm sorry Tails………I was concerned……….." Sonic felt guilty for making his buddy frightened.

"………It's fine Sonic………..I was……..I shouldn't have……I" Tails trailed off.

"Tails…..I shouldn't have yelled at you……" Sonic apolgized.

"It's alright….." Tails replied with his face cast downwards. Sonic gave the kit a comforting brotherly hug.

"Come on, let's go inside…." Sonic said, Tails nodded and both of them walked inside Tails' house. Once inside, Tails immediately sat down in an armchair with his face still downwards. "Tails? Are you okay?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah…….I'm fine…….." Tails replied quietly. "So, how was you mission?" Tails immediately changed moods and looked up at Sonic with a smile. Sonic was a bit confused with Tails' sudden mood swing.

"Yeah, it was……..fine…." Sonic tried to sound as happy as possible.

"Where's Cosmo? Didn't she go with you?" Tails asked.

"Ummm…………" Sonic tried as hard as he can to hide the truth from Tails. "She….uh……went out for a while!" Sonic smiled.

_He'll see right through it….._

"Sonic? What really happened?..." Tails pressed.

"Alright…….Well…….Tails, you're not going to find this news very good but…..um….." Sonic tried to find the easiest way to explain. "She……didn't make it…….She sacrificed herself…….to save me……."

"What?! No! NO THIS ISN'T TRUE!!!" Tails screamed. "NO!!! SHE'S NOT DEAD! SHE'S NOT DEAD!" Tails cried into the chair. Sonic approached him and sat on the chair and embraced him in a consoling hug. "Why…….(sniff)…….Why did she have to die…….." Tails said in between sobs.

"It's alright Tails………Everything will be okay…" Sonic consoled the emotional kitsune.

"No…….(sniff)..It won't be okay…….She's gone………..(sobs)….It's not fair! It's not fair!" Tails cried into Sonic's chest even harder. "Why?! WHY?!?"

"Tails……." Sonic was about to say something else but a sudden knock on the door cut him off. "I'll get it." Sonic got up off the armchair with the crying kit and walked over to the door and opened it. It was Kyro and Lily.

"Hello Sonic." Lily greeted politely.

"Hello Ivory." Sonic greeted back with a sad tone.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked with concern.

"You lost a friend……..I can tell……and Tails is inside depressed with the loss of that friend…." Kyro answered Lily's question for Sonic.

"Yes, how did you know?" Sonic asked in shock, how did he know?

"I can read people's minds and emotions, if I focus hard enough." Kyro replied.

"I'd prefer it, if you didn't come inside……Tails hasn't taken this piece of bad news very well…" Sonic said looking inside the house to find the kitsune still crying.

"He'll eventually cry himself to sleep, at this rate anyway…" Lily said. "It's best if you leave him to his thoughts, he's better off this way."

"Oh yeah? How do you figure?" Sonic asked in disbelief.

"I don't want to argue with you Sonic, I'm just suggesting." Lily replied. "Besides, I went through this with Kyro, when this kind of thing happens, you either need support which will only end up with more tears or you just leave them alone. They will want to be by themselves anyway."

"Hmph! Fine, I'll tell Tails, I'll leave him alone and then we'll talk at my house." Sonic said and then turned to walk inside the house, he approached the emotional kit. "Tails? I'm going back to my house with Ivory and the other fox so we can talk…Is that alright with you? Or do you want me to stay with you?" Sonic asked Tails.

"……….No…….Get them (sniff) to come insde………" Tails replied trying to stop crying. "I want to talk (sniff) with them anyway…." Tails stood up and wiped away the tears in his eyes. Then turned back to Sonic. "How do I look? Do I still have tears in my eyes?" Tails changed moods almost immediately and there were no tears in his eyes. He didn't even have that sad tone. He had his normal voice.

"You look fine to me." Sonic replied with a hint of shock in his voice.

"Okay, good." Tails said cheerfully and walked to the door.

_Wow! That kind of instant mood change just isn't normal….._

"Hey guys! How did it go at the base?" Tails asked cheerfully, this caused Kyro and Lily to look at each other in confusion.

"It went…..fine…" Lily replied with a hint of confusion in her voice.

"It turned out that the Eggman in the base was a robot." Kyro informed the young fox. Lily instantly turned away. "This angered Lily quite a bit…"

"Why is that?" Tails asked the cobalt fox.

"Um……It's a matter that's best left undiscussed…" Kyro replied looking down at the ground.

"Oh……sorry…." Tails apologized.

"You have nothing to apologize for, it's natural that you'd be curious about something like this." Kyro responded. Lily turned back to face Tails.

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit depressed because something happened…." Tails' face went sad.

"We're aware of the situation." Kyro responded.

"We should talk more inside. Besides, wouldn't you rather sit down instead of stand up?" Tails asked cheerfully. The other foxes looked back at each other. This was starting to get a little creepy. Then looked back at Tails again.

"You know, that's a great idea." Lily replied. Kyro nodded in agreement with Lily and the three kitsunes walked inside of the house. "It's very clean in here." Lily complimented.

"Thanks." Tails replied.

_I can't keep going on like this…….Oh god! No I don't want to cry now!_

Tears rolled down Tails' cheeks. He ran off to his room and slammed the door.

"Tails?" Sonic asked.

"He ran upstairs……" Kyro replied with a look of worry.

"It's getting late, you guys should stay here. It's not safe after the sun sets…" Sonic suggested.

"Alright, where can we sleep?" Kyro asked.

"There a spare room with a bunk bed. You guys can have that and I'll have the couch." Sonic replied.

"Thank you." Lily said with gratitude. "I'm assuming this room is upstairs?"

"Yeah. Good night." Sonic replied.

"Good night." The two said at the same time and walked up stairs. They looked through every room except the one where they could hear Tails crying. They eventually found it soon after and walked inside.

"I'll have bottom if that's alright with you Kyro." Lily said.

"That's fine, I was going to ask if you wanted the top anyway." Kyro replied climbing up the ladder to the nice soft bed. Kyro took his shoes and jacket off and unbuckled his belt. Lily just took her shoes off and scabbard. The pair fell quickly drifted off to sleep.

-----

Chapter 2 finished! (Finally) Chappy 3 should be on its way soon hopefully…


	3. A Dark, Horrific Surprise

Wow, this was a slightly bigger chapter than I thought it would turn out to be….Well, nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it even though I have been inactive for quite a while….So I apologize for the lack of activity and here it is. Chapter three. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 3: A Dark, Horrific Surprise

* * *

Tails couldn't sleep. All of these events, especially Cosmo's death, were all too much for the kit. He stood up and put on his shoes and gloves. "Tails? What's up?" A voice whispered from the doorway. It was Kyro. "I sensed that something was wrong and I decided to come and check how you're doing. You don't have to tell me why you're still upset. It will be painful to talk about, and we shouldn't think about the past. It's better to move on that way."

Tails nodded with a sniff. "Okay…"

"You want to go for a walk, maybe talk?" Kyro asked, smiling at Tails.

"Okay. I can't sleep anyway. All of these things, they just keep playing through my mind. Maybe a walk and a talk with you might straigthen things out." Tails replied with a nod.

"Good. Let's go." Kyro whispered, jumping out of the window, quietly. Tails jumped out afterwards at the same volume. The two foxes began walking along the streets of the little town. "So, do you want to tell me about yourself?" Kyro asked, wanting to make conversation with Tails to take his mind off of things.

"What do you want to know?" Tails asked.

"Everything. Where were you born? What you do, you name it." Kyro answered.

"Well, I don't really remember all that well where I was born. Nor do I remember who my parents were. They were killed shortly after I was born apparently, says Sonic anyway…" Tails explained.

"You don't really seem all that sad about it Kit." Kyro said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I never knew my parents, and I am sad about it, but like I said, I never knew them, so I can't be sure whether they were good or not. But I'm sure they would've been." Tails responded.

"I understand." Kyro said with a nod. "And what do you do?"

"I mainly go on missions around town to fight Eggman with my friends, but in my spare time, I tinker with machinery and create planes. They're very useful." Tails replied, feeling a little accomplished.

"Wow, you're really smart. How old are you again?" Kyro asked.

"Eight." Tails replied.

Kyro was simply amazed. "Wow. Only eight, yet so smart."

Tails chuckled. "Thanks." He responded.

They continued walking without conversation fro a few minutes, until a loud, shrill scream came from the top of Eggman's base. "W-What was that?" Tails asked.

The heat began to trickle Kyro's back. "Dr. Eggman's been murdered."

"H-Huh?" Tails stuttered. He could not believe what he just heard.

"Are you sure Faran? Is it really him?" Kyro asked his blade, clutching the handle.

"Is it really who?" Tails asked.

"You'll find out soon. He's still up there." Kyro replied, running to Eggman's base.

"Hey! Wait up!" Tails exclaimed, making to follow Kyro.

* * *

Lily shuffled around in her bed. She opened her eyes. "Something is amiss." The pink fox sat up and put on her shoes and attached her sword to the back of her belt. She jumped out of the window and ran to Eggman's base. Lily felt a dark aura around the base when she arrived a couple of minutes later. "I always knew you'd come back to haunt us….But I didn't think it'd be so soon…..Vero…"

* * *

Kyro and Tails entered Eggman's base. "Hmph. He's still here. We must hurry. Quick, to the crawlspace." Kyro said, picking up the pace and quickly slid throught the crawlspace and flew up to the top floor.

"Wait up!" Tails exclaimed, running after the cobalt fox, slipping under the crawlspace and flying up to follow Kyro.

Kyro jumped down the vent and there Eggman was…

Dead. His limbs were mutilated and all over the place. Kyro was mortified. As was Tails when he jumped down. "Uh…..I…Ah…Nn….." Tails was lost for words. He was completely terrified by the horrific sight in front of him.

"Vero you disgusting being." Kyro cursed under his breath.

"Now that's not very nice." A cold, hateful voice called from the doorway.

Kyro and Tails quickly turned. A yellow two-tailed fox stepped into the room. He wore a black trench coat, black jeans and shirt. He had blood red and black gloves and shoes. Kyro drew his two blades. "Vero….."

"That is my name Kyro. What do you want?" Vero's voice was blank and cold, and his expression was just the same.

"Why aren't you in hell where you belong?" Kyro demanded, feeling a bit intimidated.

"I want to know the same." Lily said, walking into the room, taking out her sword.

"Ah, a reunion, how nice. Now let's have a nice tea party and talk about things." Vero said sarcastically with a smirk.

"I'd rather be burnt alive than being in your prescence." Lily said, getting into a stance.

"Oh, I was hoping you'd say that." Vero said, keeping his smirk and creating a weapon using his own blood.

"Kyro. Get Tails out of here. I'll deal with Vero." Lily said to Kyro.

Kyro nodded and jumped out of the broken window with Tails.

"You've always been a fucking pain in my ass. I'll be glad to have that pain gone." Lily muttered sourly, her rage for the two murdered foxes in Grulander Falls made her stronger, but she was still able to focus.

"Oh, I've been a pain in your ass huh? Well you and your stupid friend have been a pain in my ass since the two of you were born." Vero snapped. "Now enough of this! Prepare to die!" He yelled, lunging at Lily.

Lily smirked and dodge rolled out of the way, slashing at Vero, cutting his side. Lily jumped up and went firing down at Vero like a homing missile, slashing Vero three times, each in the chest. However, none of the four wounds did anything to Vero. He was still going strong. "What the? I got you three times in the chest! How come you're not showing any signs of injury?"

Vero simply laughed. "I'm a necromancer Lily." He replied. "I can mend my wounds with just a thought."

"Impossible!" Lily gritted her teeth. "You are such a weak bastard. So you use dark magic to make yourself stronger. Hmph, full points for originality." She remarked sarcastically.

"Now, time for your death." Vero muttered, releasing a blood magic spell upon Lily, damaging her greatly, forcing her off of the base, plummeting down to the ground, creating a large hole where she fell. Lily was bleeding and suffering severe injuries. She was lucky to even be breathing. Vero laughed and looked down at the large hole Lily's fall had created. "Enjoy being unconscious and bleeding to death. Hahahahaha!"

* * *

Kyro and Tails ran back to Tails' house. "W-Who was that?" Tails asked, running along with Kyro.

"His name is Vero Styric. He was exiled from Grulander Falls. And he's been getting in our way for a long time." Kyro answered, slowing down to a walk.

"What did he do to get him exiled?" Tails asked, slowing down as well.

"He killed two of the residents in the small town. Then Ivory's father whom is, well was, the governer, sent him away. There had also been rumours that he had dabbled in necromancy and blood magic. Ivory's father couldn't have something like him inside the small peaceful town, but it was just another reason for exile." Kyro explained, standing a moment to catch his breath.

"Who were the two people that got killed?" Tails asked, sitting down next to Kyro to catch his breath.

"Amadeus and Rosemary were their names. They had a kid too. I felt sorry for the kid. Some say he died. Others say he was kidnapped and tortured." Kyro replied.

"_Amadeus and Rosemary…Where have I heard those two names before?..." _Tails thought, digging through his mind to find who belonged to those names.

"Anyway, we should be getting to your house now. Ivory's probably done with Vero by now. Let's go." Kyro said, beginning to run off. Tails was still deep in his thoughts, trying to find out whom those names belonged to. "Tails?" Kyro asked, looking at the thinking kit. "Tails!"

Tails' train of thought ended with the increased volume of Kyro's voice. "Y-Yeah?"

"Let's go. Your friend and Ivory are probably waiting for us." Kyro said with a smile, running off back to Tails' house.

Tails nodded and made to follow Kyro at the same pace.

* * *

Kyro and Tails arrived at Tails' house after five minutes worth of running. Both of them were exhausted because they were running at their fullest speed. "Haha! I win!" Kyro exclaimed in triumph.

"Hey! No fair! You cheated!" Tails whined, putting his hands on his hips.

"It's not my fault you weren't ready." Kyro said.

"That's because you ran at top speed before telling me!" Tails responded.

Kyro laughed and walked inside the house. Tails grunted and followed along. Kyro crept past the snoozing Sonic and crept upstairs. Tails did the same. They both went into the spare room where Kyro and Lily slept for the night. "Hmm….That's weird….Normally she'd be here by now…What's taking her so long?"

"Hmm….Maybe she's just investigating the base to check what other things Vero has done." Tails suggested, sitting down on a chair.

"Or salvaging parts of robots for her gadgets. She's like you in a way. She loves to tinker with machinery, like you." Kyro said, sitting down on his bed.

"Really? Hmm….Maybe we can share each other's ideas." Tails thought out loud.

"She's always keen to learn how to create new things." Kyro said with a nod and a yawn.

Tails smiled with a yawn. "Guess we should get some sleep."

"You can. I'm going to stay awake and wait for Ivory." Kyro said, lying down on the bed.

Tails nodded. "Okay. Good night."

"Good night." Kyro yawned, closing his eyes. Tails walked out of the spare room and into his own. He got into his bed and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

It was morning now. Kyro was really beginning to worry about Lily. He walked downstairs and found Sonic sitting up on the couch he was sleeping on. "Morning." Kyro greeted, making his way to the door.

"Morning." Sonic responded. "Where are you going?"

"Off to Eggman's base. Lily is there and has been since midnight. I'm worried about her…So I'm going to look for her."

"Wait…Egghead's base? Maybe he captured her."

"No." Kyro stopped at the doorway. "Eggman is dead."

Sonic could not believe what he just heard. "H-How do you know?"

"Because Tails and I went there when we heard a scream." Kyro replied, opening the door. "Lily went there afterwards. We encountered an old enemy we've known for a long time. He was responsible for Dr. Eggman's death."

"I have to see this for myself." Sonic said, standing up and making his way to the door.

"Then we will be going together then." Kyro walked outside of the door.

"If you can keep up that is." Sonic said, speeding off to Eggman's base.

Kyro rolled his eyes and ran at his top speed, which strangely enough, was the same as Sonic's. The two cobalt anthromorphs arrived at Eggman's base a couple of minutes later. "Wow. You're pretty fast kid." Sonic complimented, walking inside of the doctor's base.

"Kid? I'm only one year younger than you Sonic." Kyro corrected, following inside.

"Is Egghead's so called 'dead body' up where he usually is?" Sonic asked the blue fox.

"If the top floor with a giant computer is where he usually is, then yes. He is up there." Kyro answered, scanning the lobby for Lily.

"Okay, then. Be back in a jiffy!" Sonic said, speeding off up to the top floor.

Kyro sighed and shook his head. "I'd better find Lily, wherever she is." Kyro muttered before running off to find his childhood friend.

Sonic found the mutilated body of his evil nemesis in a matter of seconds. "Oh my god!" Sonic's eyes were wide in horror at the disgusting sight in front of him. "He really is dead…That blue fox was right…."

A dark figure stood at the side of the large computer. "Hmph. I might as well make this room a tourist attraction, it's that popular." The figure muttered, its voice was cold and blank.

Sonic quickly turned to where he heard the voice. "Wh-Who's there?"

"No-one you need to know about." The figure replied, simply standing there.

"Show yourself now!" Sonic demanded irritably.

"Fine. But, just a warning. My face will be the last face you'll see in your soon to be short life, hedgehog." The figure threatened, walking out into the light. It was Vero, not that Sonic knew who he was. Vero smirked and began muttering something that made no sense to Sonic whatsoever. The yellow fox flicked his hand at Sonic and a dark ball of energy flew at the cobalt hedgehog, forcing him out of the window. "Enjoy your fall." Vero said with a bigger smirk before stalking back into the shadows of the room.

Sonic fell onto the ground, creating a giant hole. He was severely wounded, like Lily, but he was bleeding internally and if he didn't get medical attention soon, he would die.

* * *

Lily finally woke up after being comatose for several hours. She groaned and moaned as she got herself out of the giant hole her fall had created. The pink fox looked over to the hole next to her. "That wasn't there when I fell down…" Lily muttered, limping slowly over to the newer hole, seeing Sonic down there. "Hmph….Guess I wasn't the only one to fight Vero and fail…Nngh…..I….I should go down and get him…" Lily murmured weakly, climbing down the hole to the severely injured hedgehog. She picked him up and began climbing back up. The whole process was extremely painful for the young adult fox, but she managed it to the best of her ability.

Lily began to bring Sonic back to town so she could find a hospital. It took about half an hour to get down there and find a hospital, but she found one. Feeling somewhat relieved, she dragged Sonic and herself inside.

A young anthro cat that was dressed like a nurse ran straight to them. "You two are extremely wounded! Come with me immediately!" Although she was a nurse, her voice was very panicky.

"Take the hedgehog. I'm leaving." Lily muttered weakly, placing Sonic on a hospital bed in a nearby room. Nurses and doctors immediately ran off to the room and began to examine him. They were extremely shocked about Sonic's condition. News reporters immediately arrived at the hospital and made their reports on the injured hedgehog.

"_Sonic must be really loved by the people, by the way they are reacting at the moment…" _Lily thought, watching over the scene. Lily turned and began making her way out of the room.

* * *

Tails woke up a few minutes later, opening the window to find the morning breeze brush against his fur. He felt great. However, that would soon change. The yellowish fox got changed and walked downstairs to the lounge room to find that Sonic wasn't there. Tails chuckled. "Hehe. Typical. He's always up and out at this time." He didn't want to bother his guests and he assumed that Lily had come back by now, so he sat down and turned on the television to look at the new bulletins.

And then, it was that moment, his joy turned into fear and sadness. They were doing a news report on the injured hedgehog.

"_This is coming to you live from the hospital of the town settled on the Mystic Ruins." _The news reported said through the TV. Her voice was filled with a mixture of sadness and fear, like Tails' emotions. _"Our hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, was admitted into this hospital a short while ago. The doctors and nurses have examined him and found his condition. He has suffered severe injuries and is bleeding internally."_

Tails gasped and burst out of his house. He rushed to the hospital where the injured hedgehog was reported to be. He arrived a minute later, and Lily was standing at the entrance. She was still injured but she looked like she was fine.

"You heard the news, huh?" Lily asked, her voice was still a little bit weak, but her condition had improved.

Tails nodded and looked up at Lily with teary eyes. "Is he going to be okay?" Tails sounded like he was about to cry, which was what he was about to do.

Lily looked to the hospital entrance with her hands on her hips. "I don't know. But I have a faint idea who is responsible for this."

"Who? Who is it?" Tails asked. Anger began to fill the overflowing pot of his emotions.

"Kyro has told you about Vero, right?" Lily asked, turning back to look Tails in the eye.

Tails nodded. "Yes, why?"

"I have a feeling that Vero is responsible with what happened to your friend. He did the same to me, only I was not hurt as bad. But Kyro can heal internal wounds. We should go back to your house. Kyro should still be in bed." Lily answered.

"But what about Sonic? Are we just going to leave him here?" Tails asked, letting his angry emotions out.

"We're going to have to." Lily replied, kneeling down. "The doctors will take care of him, but until we get Kyro to heal him, Sonic will eventually die. And we can't wait around for that to happen. We have to take action now."

Tails clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in rage, but settled down and simply nodded, letting out a sniffle. "…Okay…"

"Good. Let's go." Lily nodded, jogging back to the young kitsune's house. Tails stood there for a moment, a few tears rolled down his cheeks. He did not want to leave the hospital. He wanted to rush into the hospital and be at his big bro's side. But Lily was right. Now was the time for action. Tails looked up to the jogging Lily and began running after her.

* * *

Kyro spent quite a while searching for his childhood friend, but had no luck in finding her. He did not want to go up to the top floor in case Vero was still up there. He gave up and made his way back to Tails' house.

When he reached town a few minutes later, he noticed Lily and Tails running in the direction of where Tails' house. "Hey! Lily! Tails! Wait up!" Kyro yelled out, running off to catch up with them.

However, a loud roar stopped the three in their tracks. A gigantic flesh demon was terrorizing the citizens and killing them. "That…Is not good." Lily said, taking out her sword.

"You're telling me." Kyro said, walking to Lily's side.

"Kyro! We were just about to go back to the house and look for you." Tails said.

"Strange. I was just at Eggman's base looking for you Lily." Kyro said, looking to the giant demon. "We should take care of that thing before it kills any more people." Kyro took out his two daggers, Faran and Felywin. "Tails! Go back to the house!"

"No. I want to help fight." Tails replied.

Kyro stood for a moment, he wanted to object, but sighed and nodded. "Alright. We'll keep the demon from attacking you then."

"Then let's not waste time. We have a demon to kill." Lily said, running towards the undead demon in front of them.

"Right you are! Let's go!" Kyro exclaimed, doing the same.

"Right!" Tails also exclaimed, running to the demon.

Tails took out a small handle from his pockets. He pressed a small button on the handle, unsheathing a long, spiky wire that went straight out to the demon. It struck the demon's back, taking it's attention away from the citizen it was about to kill and turned to Tails. The yellowish fox yanked out the wire and went back into the long handle. The demon rushed at Tails on all fours, but did not stop when Lily stood in its path. Lily got into a stance and simply waited a short time for the demon to come closer. "This will be interesting…" Lily muttered.

After the demon came in closer, Lily decided it was time to strike. She ran at the ugly being in front of her and jumped up, landing behind it. The demon immediately turned around. "Now!" Lily yelled out to Tails and Kyro.

"There's our cue!" Kyro exclaimed, running at the demon and stabbing it in the back with his two enchanted daggers.

Tails nodded and struck the demon in the back with his mechanical whip. Lily began to strike at the demon's stomach. The demon roared, and twisted around, hitting both Kyro and Lily with its giant clawed arm. It then rushed at Tails, slashing at Tails with its clawed hands. Tails however, was quite quick and had good reflexes, and managed to dodge the oncoming attacks, giving Kyro and Lily another chance at a back attack.

Lily saw this distraction as a good chance to strike and make a deep wound. Kyro kept his distance and threw a couple of Black Magic spells at the monster in front of the trio of foxes. Tails continued to dodge the oncoming attacks by the monster and wrapped its legs using the whip to trip it over and disable movement. "Good job Tails!" Kyro complimented, using a White Magic spell to exorcise the demon, killing it and releasing the tormented souls inside of it. "May the tormented souls of this horrific demon finally rest in peace." Kyro murmured, looking at the body of the demon. He turned around to look at Lily. "Where were you Lily? I was up all night waiting for you."

"I'm sorry….My fight with Vero didn't turn out as well as I hoped. He's a necromancer now. He can heal his wounds with the flesh of the dead with just a thought…" Lily replied.

"I was afraid it'd come to this…." Kyro muttered. "Here, I'll heal your wounds." He muttered a few words and held his hand out to Lily, a white ball of energy appeared out of his hands, going into Lily and healing her wounds.

"Thanks." Lily responded with a faint smile. "But now he have another problem to take care of."

"What's that?" Kyro asked.

"Sonic has serious injuries. We came to look for you so you can heal him." Tails replied, looking down at the ground.

"What about the doctors at the hospital?" Kyro asked, shocked about the news he just heard.

"He has internal wounds. It'll take a long time before the doctors can heal him and there's a poor chance that he will live through the operations." Lily answered for Tails because she thought that he would get emotional.

Kyro nodded. "Well, in that case, we should hurry." He said, before running off back to the hospital where Sonic was.

Lily and Tails both nodded and followed. "What was that thing anyway?" Tails asked, looking down at the demon Kyro exorcized.

"A flesh demon. The caster exploits a fresh corpse and can create a demon out of it to do his or her bidding. It's a form of necromancy." Kyro answered, keeping a steady pace as the trio headed for the hospital.

"Hmph. It seems that Vero knew of our plan after dealing with Sonic…And sent in a demon using Dr. Eggman's flesh to get in our way so Sonic would eventually die. What a pathetic method." Lily scoffed.

The three arrived at the hospital a couple of minutes later. Many people were crowding around the room where Sonic lied, fearful about his reported injuries. Kyro, Tails and Lily managed to squeeze their way to Sonic's side. Tails immediately became emotional, holding Sonic's hand. "Sonic….." The kit murmured, letting out a couple of tears. He had never seen his brother this injured before.

"Kyro, you know what to do." Lily murmured to the blue fox next to her. Kyro nodded. "Everyone, out of the room. Kyro here is going to perform a spell which will heal the hedgehog's internal wounds. And he needs space."

Everyone in the room nodded and headed out of the room and into the waiting room. "Go with Ivory to the waiting room Tails. I need to be alone to perform this important task." Kyro muttered.

As much as he didn't want to, the fox nodded and walked outside with Lily to the waiting room.

Kyro stretched his arms and began to whisper a few words of an ancient dialect. He held his hands over the injured Sonic while he did this. Suddenly, his hands began to glow a faint white.

Kyro continued to whisper in this unknown language for several minutes, and the white glow on his hands was slowly becoming a bright light that shone over Sonic. And much to Kyro's relief, some of Sonic's external wounds began to close. Kyro sighed in relief, before continuing to speak in the ancient language to strengthen the spell to work internally as well as externally.

An hour had passed and Kyro still could not feel anything happening to the internal wounds of the blue hedgehog. All of the external wounds had been closed though. "Just a little longer Sonic, and you'll be better. Trust me." Kyro muttered to the comatose hedgehog.

* * *

Tails sat in the waiting room with Lily and all of the other citizens in the hospital. Enough bad things have happened to him in his life. The last thing Tails wanted and/or needed was the death of his big brother. Soft chattering could be heard all over the waiting room. It sounded much more like a meeting with the amount of low chatter. "How do you think he's going in there?" Tails asked Lily, referring to Kyro. "It's been about an hour. Could there be complications?"

Lily shook her head. "There would be no complications. I remember when he did this for me. I was actually awake though. It took a good three hours for my internal wounds to be healed enough to be stable and five weeks for them to be fully healed. So who knows how long it will take."

Tails noticed a black mark on the pink fox's shoulder. The young kit began contemplating whether or not to ask about the mark. He finally decided to ask after a minute of debating in his mind. "What's that mark on your shoulder?" Tails asked. "I've seen something like that before….But I don't remember where…"

Lily looked at Tails for a moment before answering, "It was an identification tag for Grulander Falls citizens to determine which family they are from. Legends say that there was a god-like spiritual being in the caves near Grulander Falls that'd curse your tag if you ever came near it. You'd be given a mission and a time limit to complete it. If you didn't, it was said that you'd turn into a monster and wander the earth forever."

"Wow….That sounds a bit scary….Being a monster…." Tails murmured, beginning to twiddle his thumbs as he waited.

"But legends also say, that if you complete your mission, you're rewarded with an eternal slumber inside a large crystal flower made of fire crystals." Lily added, taking out her sword and held it at her lap.

"Wow. That'd be a good reward." Tails said with a sweet smile. "An eternal slumber…Free of worries….No feeling pain of anything…..Just…Sleep…."

"It does sound good, doesn't it?" Lily asked, smiling faintly at the yellowish fox sitting next to her.

Tails smiled sweetly again and nodded. "Uh-huh."

"What's your last name?" Lily asked, looking to find a strange sort of blue mark of the fox's neck.

"Prower. Why?" Tails replied.

Lily paused. She was shocked at what she just heard. "You….You are the lost child….."

"Wh-What?" Tails looked to Lily whom was staring blankly into the floor.

"When Vero murdered Amadeus and Rosemary, it was said that their child disappeared off the face of the earth. Some say he was killed. Some say he was kidnapped by Vero. But…I couldn't have imagined that he'd be safe and sound….." Lily explained.

This made no sense to Tails whatsoever. He wanted answers. "What on Mobius are you going on about?"

"Amadeus and Rosemary…Their last name was Prower….And they had the same mark as you have." Lily replied, staring blankly into Tails' eyes. "You were born in Grulander Falls, as a citizen. Your parents were murdered, and you disappeared. Yet, you are still alive. Why is this so?" One mystery was cleared, but now a new one existed for Lily.

"Of course! It makes so much sense now!" Tails murmured. "That explains why the names Amadeus and Rosemary were so familiar to me….And the mark! They were my parents! My life-long mystery has been cracked."

"How come you're alive? After all these years, you are still alive. How and why is it so?" Lily asked.

"Sonic found me while he was running around. He said he heard a baby crying and then found it. That baby was me. So he took me here and took care of me and others took care of me as well." Tails explained. "I was glad to have met him. He's the best person I've ever known."

"Hmph. I'm not sure you'd want my opinion on him." Lily muttered with a soft chuckle.

"Go ahead." Tails said at a low volume.

"Well. Based on his first impression, he's all talk. He thinks he can defeat anyone without breaking a sweat. This lowers his focus." The pink fox briefly explained.

"Yeah. He thinks that everything is so easy so he doesn't really need to try hard in battle. This is why he gets injured most of the time." Tails added.

"Indeed." Lily nodded. "He should be glad to have you with him. Because unlike him, you come up with strategies to help him in battle, like you did with the demon. You tripped the demon with your whip which allowed Kyro to exorcize the dark spirits. It would've taken us longer before Kyro could exorcize it."

"I don't usually go into the actual battle like I did with the demon. I'm usually in my plane, providing aerial support whenever it was needed." Tails said, looking down at the ground.

"Well, I'll put in a good word of your skills in battle next time I talk to Sonic." Lily promised with a faint smile.

Tails looked up to Lily and smiled with a nod. "Much appreciated."

The quiet chatter of the people died down when Kyro left the room where Sonic was kept. "It is done. Sonic will be fine. He will need his rest though, so only his closest friends will be allowed in there." Kyro said with a sigh of relief.

Everyone inside the hospital cheered and clapped, then walked outside to celebrate and spread the good news. Lily, Tails and a couple of others remained. "You can go in and see Sonic now, Tails. He's still unconscious, but he will awaken within the day's end." Kyro said to the young fox.

Tails nodded and did exactly that. He walked in to find Sonic resting on the bed closest to the window. The fox was glad that his big brother was alive and well. He'd have to thank Kyro next time they talk. Tails dragged a nearby chair over to the side of Sonic's bed. He was glad that Sonic was now okay, but was still worried if there were more problems with the blue hedgehog. "It's okay Sonic…You're fine now….." Tails said to himself, looking over his brother to find that there were no more wounds on his body, which made Tails sigh in relief.

Kyro sat down next to Lily, sighing. "Whew. I'm glad that's over. It took a lot of time and strain to keep that spell under control long enough to work efficiently."

"I imagine it would have." Lily said, looking at Kyro with a faint smile. "You remember the two foxes Vero murdered, right?"

Kyro nodded. "I'll never forget that dreadful day….Why?"

"The child of those two foxes. It's Tails."

Kyro stood up with an expression of shock. "Really? How can you be so sure?"

Lily nodded. "He asked about the mark on my shoulder, so I told him everything there was needed to know about it. But when I saw a familiar blue mark on the fox's neck, I asked what his last name was, and he said that his last name was Prower. And that brought everything back….I saw the mark of the two foxes who were murdered. Their mark and Tails' mark look exactly the same! If my father was still alive, he'd be extremely happy to know that the little child is alright and not dead..."

Kyro tried hard not to think about what happened the day when he and Lily were both kidnapped, but the mention of Lily's deceased father brought everything back. Kyro sighed and looked down at the floor, trying desperately to keep those memories hidden and out of reach. "How do you think we are going to be able to get rid of Vero? Because it is likely that we will be fitted with the task of doing so." Kyro asked.

"I say we go back to Grulander Falls…." Lily replied, standing up.

"But, that place is a ruin! And the memories will all come back!" Kyro objected.

"We have to face our past sooner or later. Besides, I want to check whether the legend is really true."

"But it will curse us!" Kyro objected again, standing up.

"That's if the legend is actually true. You're assuming it is, and for all we know, it could be a lie."

"You're….You're serious about this…Aren't you?" Kyro asked.

"Of course I am. Once I set my mind to something, I don't stop until I complete my goal. I was sure you'd know that by now." Lily replied in a seemingly calm voice. But she was beginning to have second thoughts. _"Could this really be the answer? Could the spirit from the legends be the way to get some actual answers?" _Lily thought.

Kyro knew exactly what she was thinking and asked himself the very same questions. _"Could this spirit really have the answers we desire?" _Kyro thought. _"Lily might be right about the legend being fake…..But…We run the risk of being cursed…..I don't really want to be a monster if I fail my mission…For that matter, I don't really want to sleep in a fiery crystal flower for all eternity…"_

"Will we be taking Tails there too? I mean, he'd probably want to see his birthplace." Lily asked.

"I think that'd be best." Kyro replied. "He does want to. I can feel him thinking about it now."

"I guess all we can do at this point is sit and wait for Sonic to wake up." Lily sighed.

"Yeah...I guess so."

* * *

Once again, I am sorry for the late arrival of Chapter Three. I have a low attention span, so I usually give up on things and come back to them if I have nothing else to do. Chapter Four should hopefully be on sometime soon. Thanks for the long wait and R&R fairly.

TheCursed54 ^^


	4. Digging Up The Past

Wow, this chapter is even bigger than the last one! Heh. Oh well, enjoy this new chapter!

* * *

Chapter 4 - Digging up the Past

* * *

A couple of hours had passed since Kyro had successfully healed Sonic's internal wounds, saving his life. Kyro and Lily were still waiting in the waiting room, while Tails was still inside of the room where Sonic rested. Cream, her mother Vanilla and Amy went to the hospital after hearing the news to see how Sonic was going. Amy was furious and demanded an explanation for her self-proclaimed boyfriend's condition, which sparked Lily's curiousity when she heard yelling inside Sonic's room.

Knuckles also visited after Cream, Vanilla and the angry Amy left to check on Sonic. The news of the blue hedgehog's previous condition seemed to get around fast Lily noticed.

But finally, there was piece and quiet inside the small hospital, which were two things that calmed Lily down. After being enraged by Eggman killing her father, and the return of Vero, now was a time she could sit with her eyes closed and think clearly.

Tails walked out of the room, looking to Kyro and Lily. "You guys can come and wait inside Sonic's room you know, it's more quiet in there."

Lily opened one eyes and looked up to Tails but kept quiet. "Sure, why not?" Kyro replied, standing up. "Are you coming Ivory?"

Lily opened her other eye and stood up. "May as well, if it's as peaceful as you say, then I'd rather be in there than here." Lily walked into the room. Kyro and Tails followed after her. Lily sat at the cornerof the room on the floor, closing her eyes once more and getting into a meditating position.

'So, how long until Sonic wakes up Kyro?" Tails asked.

"I told you, he'll be up and running by day's end. I promise."

"Oh, right." Tails chuckled softly. "Ivory tells me I was born in your hometown….Is that true?"

Kyro walked over and examined the mark that Lily mentioned to Kyro. "Yes, that is true. Your mother and father bore the same mark."

"Can I see it? Can you and Ivory lead me to the ruins of our home?" Tails asked.

Ivory stood up, opening both of her eyes. "We were planning on making a trip there anyway. There is something I'd like to see. Remember the legend I told you about?"

Tails nodded. "Yes, of course. Why?"

"We're going to see whether the legend is true, whether the spirit actually exists." Lily replied. "We leave at dawn tomorrow, and don't be telling Sonic or anyone else about it. We don't want Sonic to get curious and follow us."

"Then we might as well leave now. That way, Sonic won't know where we are, or going." Kyro suggested.

Tails stood up. He wanted to object, but Kyro was right. Sonic would definitely follow the trio if they were gone. Tails decided not to object and simply nodded his head in reply.

"Good, then let's go right now, while the sun is still up." Lily said, making her way out of the door and out of the hospital. Kyro and Tails followed shortly after.

"We must keep watch and stay alert. There have been many fiends on the roads lately. And we don't know when or where they are. So keep watch and stay focused." Lily warned, making her way out of the town, towards Grulander Falls.

"_Grulander Falls….I never thought I'd be coming back to the ruins of our home….." _Kyro thought, walking along with Lily and Tails, holding Faran's handle.

* * *

Day 1 - The Two Murders

It was a nice, peaceful day in the town of Grulander Falls. Kyro walked along the grassy pathways back to his house with food supplies, when suddenly a shrill scream came from the Prower house. Kyro dropped his food supplies and ran to the Prower house.

Vero was standing next to the recently murdered Amadeus and Rosemary Prower, but their child was nowhere to be found. "Vero! What have you done?" Kyro shouted at Vero.

"What the fuck does it look like? I killed the two Prowers. It's a shame I couldn't find the kid though. I'd love to shut that kid up. It fucking screams in the day time, making it impossible to sleep."

"You sicken me Vero. Why would you do such a thing?" Kyro asked.

"Oh, please. Enough with the peace talk. I've had enough. I would end my life if I could. But no, my fucking sword forbids it. Stupid whiny piece of shit."

Lily and her father walked into the door. "Oh, my god! You….You killed the Prowers! That's it Vero! You are henceforth, exiled from the paradise of Grulander Falls!" Lily's father, the governer yelled.

Vero laughed. "You've got to be kidding me. This place is no paradise. It's a fucking prison."

Lily took out her sword and held it to Vero's neck. "Shut up!"

"Ah. Lily. Still good looking as ever." Vero reached a hand out to touch Lily's cheek.

Lily responded with a punch in Vero's face. "Don't fucking touch me! Why don't we kill him right now? It'll do the rest of the world a favour." She asked her father.

"We will not kill this young man. He deserves to live as much as the rest of us." The governer replied.

"But, father!"

"No buts Lily. Be a good girl and go back to the house."

Lily glared at her father, before grunting and putting her sword away. "You're lucky my father has given you mercy. Because next time we meet, I will not listen to my father's orders." She walked out of the Prower's house and kicked a nearby wall in fury.

"Lily….Are you alright?" Kyro asked, following her out of the house.

"Do I look like I'm alright? My father is a pain in the ass! Vero does not deserve to live!" Lily snapped, kicking the wall again. "Ugh…..If my father wasn't governer and I was, then things would change. There would be a public execution for criminals like Vero, so we would be safe. My father says he's going to do something about these murders…..But he never does….He's all talk."

"Well, at least Vero won't be here anymore. That's a plus." Kyro said positively.

"Be that as it may, it doesn't mean he can't go somewhere else and murder people. He never thinks about these possibilities!" Lily responded with anger.

"I wonder where their child went….He was not with Vero….Where could he be?..." Kyro asked himself.

"How should I know?" Lily responded, trying to calm herself down.

"I guess we'll never know…" Kyro murmured with a sigh. "I guess I'll see you later Lily…" Kyro said, going back to get his food supplies, then travelled to his house.

Lily sighed and walked back to her house where she waited for her father.

* * *

Tails, Kyro and Lily continued making their way to the ruins of Grulander Falls. Lily had her hand at her gunblade's handle, Tails was holding his mechanical whip and Kyro had his hands on Faran and Felywin. "How much longer do you think it's going to take to get to Grulander Falls?" Tails asked, walking in a stance but kept a steady pace.

"I'm not sure, maybe several kilometres. We could be walking for hours, maybe even days." Lily replied uncertainly.

"At any rate, we should stay alert." Kyro added, scanning around for any fiends. "Who knows when we will be attacked."

Tails nodded. "Right." Tails said, keeping a firm grip on his mechanical whip.

The three were met by a rather fearsome wolf. He was anthro and had an assault rifle equipped. "What are you three doing all the way out in the woods? Maybe you haven't noticed, but have been a lot of fiends in the woods of late." The wolf asked. He seemed fearsome, but he wasn't hostile.

"Yes, we know that there are. But we haven't come across any yet." Kyro replied calmly. He felt quite intimidated by the wolf but was reassured by the lack of hostility.

"Hmph. Lucky you." The wolf responded with a smirk. He had red fur and wore a red scarf that looked torn at the end. He also wore a black shirt, black jeans and dark brown boots. As well as the assault rifle, he had a spear with a poisoned tip. "Most people who wander around here usually find fiends around the first couple of kilometres. Where are you three from?"

"The small settlement on the Mystic Ruins." Lily replied, carefully examining the wolf.

"Ah. So you haven't been travelling long then. Where are you headed?"The crimson wolf asked.

"That's none of your business." Lily replied, folding her arms and looking at the unknown wolf with a glare.

"My, aren't we fiesty. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" The wolf asked with a smirk.

Lily was not amused. "Hmph. Keep pushing me. I'll show you how fiesty I can get." Lily threatened.

"Whoa. Easy there." The wolf said.

"So, what brings you out here?" Kyro asked.

"I'm just exploring, seeing the sights of the north." The wolf replied.

"You mean, you're from the south?" Tails asked.

"Yep. The lands of the south. The ones that you Northerners fear so much because apparently it's hell on earth."

"Hmph. That's only because they're weak and don't know how to fight." Lily said, turning to look beside her.

"Exactly. You know what it's like there?" The wolf asked, looking to Lily with interest.

Lily turned her head to look at the large wolf, putting her hands on her hips. "Yes, I was sent there for recon sometimes."

"So, what do you think it's like?" The wolf asked, interested about what Lily knows about the south.

"Well, speaking from my time there, it's a dog eat dog land. Life there is a struggle. The south weeds out the weak and leaves only the strong. Monsters crawl around every single terrain in the south, and they're terrifying monsters too. You have to be quick on your feet if you want to survive." Lily explained. "That's basically the south in a nutshell."

"Very good. You actually know what it's like there. And you're able to live to tell the tale of being in the south. I have to admit, I underestimated you. Most people in the north cower in their homes, forever scared of the south. But you however, are not scared at all. Where do you come from?" The wolf complimented.

"We all come from Grulander Falls. Not that you'd know where that is." Lily replied.

"Oh, I do know where Grulander Falls, and if that's where you want to go, you're going the wrong way." The wolf said, pointing to the east. "Grulander Falls is that way. And that town is the very place I got this." He said, lifting up his shirt. A large black mark with a yellow closed eye was imprinted on his stomach.

"Wait….Ivory…Does that look familiar to you?" Kyro asked his childhood friend.

Lily walked up to get a closer look. "Where did you get this? Can you take us to where you got it?"

The wolf thought it over for a second then nodded. "Sure, why not? I'm bored anyway. My name is Kaze. How about you three?"

"My name is Kyro. This here is Tails, and that's Ivory." Kyro introduced the three foxes.

"Well, let's get going shall we?" Kaze said, pulling his shirt down again to hide the mark and his stomach.

"Right." Lily replied with a nod.

Kaze began walking through the woods, up to the ruins of Grulander Falls. The three foxes followed the large wolf. "So, why are you three going to Grulander Falls? That place is just a pile of rubble now." Kaze asked.

"We want to check up on something." Lily replied simply, following along.

"Hmph. Fair enough."

The four anthromorphs arrived at Grulander Falls in a couple of hours. "How much longer? My feet hurt…." Tails complained, exhausted from the long hike.

"Ugh…How long does that kid have to whine?" Kaze sighed. "….Northerners…"

"Not very far at all Tails, for we are already here." Kyro answered the complaining kit's question.

"So, where was the place where you got that mark?" Lily asked with her hand on her hip.

"Just over there, in that cave." Kaze replied, pointing over in the south-west direction.

"Alright. Will you be coming with us?" Kyro asked.

"No. I must take my leave at this point. See you guys later!" Kaze replied, running off.

"Hmph. Good riddance." Lily said sourly.

"We would've been walking in the wrong direction without his help." Kyro said, looking to the cave Kaze specified.

"Speaking of which, let's go in." Tails said, walking over to the entrance to the cave. Kyro and Lily followed after the eager fox. Even though Tails knew what would happen if the legend was real, but he was excited to explore and find out more about his past.

The cave looked a lot like a scrap yard. Large parts of machinery were buried in the ground. "Looks just like a scrapyard. Hmph. Good." Lily said with a smirk. "Maybe there are some things which I can salvage."

"So, tell me, what was Grulander Falls like?" Tails asked, curious about his birth place.

"It was paradise before the death of your parents. No worries. No fiend attacks thanks to Ivory. She was the leader of the guard in our little town. There weren't many guard soldiers, but they were great thanks to Ivory's training."

"And things would be better for us if my stupid father wasn't the governer." Lily muttered sourly, putting her hand on her hip.

'Why is that?" Tails asked.

"He says he does things, but he never does them. He promises to do things but never keeps them. He's all talk and he's a weak leader…We got into a lot of arguments. Some of them were…More serious….And the one the day your parents were killed….Was the most serious…" Lily replied, thinking back on that day with her eyes closed.

* * *

Day 1: The Argument

* * *

_I was angered by my father's refusement to let me kill Vero…..That was a decision he regretted later on….But what's done was done….But….I did things I would never do were I in my right mind…_

Lily's father walked into their house a couple of minutes later. Lily stood up and confrnted her father. "We could've killed him right there, right then. Why didn't you let me kill him?" Lily asked irritably.

"Because, that would put more citizens in worry." Her father replied.

"No, it would've put them at ease. They wouldn't have to worry about him killing anybody else again! Why don't you ever think that possibility?" Lily shouted. She was furious. This was the worst thing her father had done to the town.

"I did what was best for the town." The governer replied, keeping calm even though his daughter was furious at him.

"No! What would be best for the town was to see him executed! You always have mercy on these damn criminals! Sending them away in exile…..Just what kind of governer are you! You are so weak!" Lily shouted, smashing her fist against a nearby table.

"I am not weak! And you will learn your place. You are my daughter, and not the governer. You will ovey me!" The governer snapped irritably.

"You're absolutely fucking hopeless! Consider the consequences of this event! He might get back at this town by killing more citizens! Damn it father! Don't you understand?"

"Now I've had enough of this! Be quiet and listen to me. You are not governer. You never will be governer. No one will elect you over me. I am the best governer this town has ever had!" The governer shouted, smashing his fists against the table.

"Oh, what a load of crap! You are by far the worst! Have you listened to the gossip lately? They hate you! They would kick you out of being a governer if they could!"

"But that's the thing! They can't!" Lily's father laughed evilly. "And you can't do anything either! So go back to your room and shut up! Otherwise I'll exile you too!" The governer threatened.

"The town will perish if I'm not here to handle the guard!"

"I'm sure they will live without you. You are in no position to boast!"

"I am the best soldier this town has! They will not be able to keep order if I'm not here to keep the guards in check! The guards will go corrupted and kill people and claim they're fiends who have lost their minds! Damn it father you do not understand!" Lily yelled, punching the table and breaking it.

"No, it is you who doesn't understand! You do not know your place! You should learn it."

_At this point, I was enraged beyond belief….I had no control over myself or my actions whatsoever…._

Lily screamed. "I've had ENOUGH OF THIS!" Lily yelled in complete fury. She took out her sword and held it at her father's throat. "You shut the hell up and listen to me right now! OR I'M GOING TO CHOP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"

At this point, Kyro immediately burst into the door after hearing Lily's screaming. "Lily! No! Don't do this!" Kyro exclaimed, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.

"Stay out of this Kyro! This is between me and my father!" Lily snapped, pulling her arm away.

"Forgive me Lily…..But this is for the best…" Kyro muttered. He took out Felywin and dug it into his hand, wincing at the pain. He threw his blood down on the ground, but did not touch the ground. Instead, it turned into a small ball of blood and blood red vines flew out and wrapped around the raging fox, restraining her.

Kyro dragged the restrained Lily out to his house to let her calm down. She continued screaming for two hours, before finally settling down.

* * *

Lily opened her eyes and clenched her right fist. "If Kyro wasn't there to restrain me…..I would've made the biggest mistake of my life…..But I tend to get like that when I'm totally enraged…I lose control of myself and my actions…..And I do things I normally wouldn't…..Like threatening my father…." Lily sighed and held onto her necklace.

"Oh….It must've been hard, going through that." Tails murmured, looking down to the ground.

"I was able to go through it, thanks to Kyro." Lily said with a smile, giving the cobalt fox a hug.

Kyro responded giving Lily back the hug with a blush. "Aww….Thanks Ivory…."

They both looked at each other and smiled, before breaking the hug and looking to the pathway that was covered with machinery. "We should keep moving. I'm eager to see whether or not this legend is really true." Lily said, changing the subject.

Both Kyro and Tails nodded. "Right." They said at the same time, then they looked at each other and began laughing. Lily chuckled softly as a response.

"Let's get going then shall we?" Lily said with a smile.

"Let's go!" Tails exclaimed enthusiastically, running off further into the cave.

"He's certainly enthusiastic isn't he?" Kyro asked, looking over at Tails with a smile.

"Remind you of anyone?" Lily asked, referring to the fox next to her.

Kyro chuckled. "Oh yeah." Kyro responded before running after the eight year-old kitsune. Lily smiled over at the both of them and walked instead of ran.

"Hey look! Over there!" Tails exclaimed, pointing over at a robot moving around some scrap metal.

"According to legends, the cave was a large scrapyard and the spirit had robotic workers to move around spare scrap metal to create more robots." Kyro explained, looking to the robot with interest.

The robot turned around to look to the three foxes. "UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY. INITIALIZING ATTACK." The robot said, running at the trio.

"Hmph! You want us? Come and get us!" Lily exclaimed, running to the robot, taking out her gunblade. "Kyro. This robot looks heavily armoured. Is there a chance you can disintergrate its armour using magic?" Lily asked, getting into her usual fighting stance.

"If it is possible, then I will try. But I have not used the spell for some time so I can't remember it well." Kyro replied, gripping Faran's handle tightly.

Tails took out his mechanical whip. "There is another alternative. We can stun it using thunder magic, then we can run to avoid anyone getting hurt, and we will find out about the legend quicker." Tails suggested, getting into a stance.

"Sounds like a decent plan to me. Let's try that." Lily agreed, jumping back to allow Tails and Kyro to stun the robot in front of them.

"Right! Let's do this!" Kyro yelled, preparing a thunder spell to try and stun the robot. Tails nodded and shot out the whip at the robot. The robot whacked the whip and yanked it, pulling Tails toward it, smashing it with its fist, sending the kit flying backward. Lily began to attract its attention by shooting it with her Infernal Pistol. Kyro released his spell onto the robot. It responded by saying, "INITIALIZING POWER CANNON….BZZZT"

"That doesn't sound good." Lily muttered with a sigh, trying to get the robot's attention as much as possible to avoid the power cannon to attack Kyro or Tails. And to make matters worse, more robots began to rush at the three. "Oh, perfect. Just perfect. That what we need right now. More robots!" Lily said sarcastically.

Bullets were fired upon the robots from behind the trio of foxes, destroying the one beginning to charge its cannon and started to fire upon another one. Both Lily and Kyro turned to find Kaze standing right behind them. He smirked and began running at the other robots, attacking them with his spear and destroying them easily. Tails got himself up, thankfully with no broken bones. "Hello again." Kaze greeted with a wave.

"Hi. I guess we should thank you. Who knows how we would've fared without you?" Kyro responded with a appreciative expression.

"Stunning it would've been a good idea, if it was possible." Kaze said, referring to Tails' suggestion. "You can't stun these robots. You need brute strength to destroy these things."

"Why are you back here?" Lily asked, folding her arms.

"Like I said before, I'm bored and I need something to do to keep myself occupied. That's another problem with the north. Not enough action." Kaze replied, once again, complaining about the north again.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Not impressed I take it? Hmph. I'm not surprised. This place is hell boring compared to the south. More action and more impressing scenery."

"Finally! Someone who understands my reasoning for needless complaining!" Kaze sighed with relief. "Everyone else would just look at me wierdly and roll their eyes."

"Let's continue." Lily said, making her way through the tunnelled scrapyard. Kaze followed, along with Kyro and Tails. Their explring came to a standstill when they approached two tunnels. "Well this is just perfect." Lily muttered sarcastically.

Tails looked at the two tunnels and whimpered, letting himself fall to the ground. "What will we do?" the exhausted fox asked.

"We'll split up and go into each tunnel in groups of two. Kyro, you will go with Kaze, and Tails, you will come with me." Lily answered. "Tails and I will go through this tunnel. You two will go through that one."

"Can't we rest for just a minute? We have all the time in the world!" Tails whined, massaging his feet.

"The quicker we do what we came here to do and leave, the quicker we can go home and see how Sonic is going. Does that sound better?" Lily asked irritably.

Tails immediately stood up. "Well, when you put it that way…."

"Good. We leave at once then." Lily spoke with a nod, walking through her assigned tunnel.

"Hey! Wait up!" Tails exclaimed, running after the pink fox.

"Let's go then." Kyro spoke, walking into his assigned tunnel.

Kaze nodded. "Right you are." Kaze began to follow Kyro.

_Good….Everything is falling into place…._

Kyro stopped and turned around. "Did you hear that?"

Kaze kept walking. "Hear what?"

_No one's talking Kyro….Keep walking…._

Kyro looked around some more, then sighed and began walking again. "You're right. I must be hearing things…"

Words began to fill Kaze's mind as the duo continued walking along the tunnel. _"You're doing well Kaze. You soon won't have to put up with them anymore." _The voice spoke.

The two continued to walk along. "So, tell me Kyro. How good are you in battle?" The curious Kaze asked.

"I'm not entirely sure how I would fare in the south, but here in the north, I'm an exceptionally good fighter with the knowledge of ancient magic." Kyro replied.

"A mage huh? Mages don't usually last in the south. But you seem quick on your feet and those daggers of yours would do you good." Kaze responded. "But speed isn't really used much in the south. It's either brute strength or a quick and easy death."

"Really? That'd put the enemies at a disadavntage 'd expect you to be slow and strong, so they use speed to best you. But, if you are quick on your feet, then you'd be able to beat them at their game and best them. They'd never expect it." Kyro explained.

"Wow….I never really thought about that….That's good thinking there. That's an advantage with you Northerners. You're all smart." Kaze complimented.

"Thanks. Ivory's all of the above. She's smart, quick and strong. A perfect warrior with all of the abilities she can use to make advantages in battles." Kyro said, putting in a very good word for Lily's skills in battle.

"Really? No wonder she's still living after coming from the south." Kaze was a bit shocked. "Northerners" weren't as bad as he thought.

"She's a master strategist too. She knows all the right things to do in battles and ensure success." Kyro added.

"Does she know spells like you?" Kaze asked, interested in what else Lily was capable of.

"I taught her basic healing spells, to help her in battle. She was the town medic too, which made her liked amongst our people."

"Why weren't you the town medic?" Kaze asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't want to be. I like helping people, it makes me feel good. But I wanted her to be governer more than her father. He didn't do most things he said he would. He let a murderer walk free which angered Ivory a lot."

"I see. So you wanted Ivory to become the town medic so people would like her more and vote her for governer instead of her father. Interesting. We don't have government systems in the south. The closest we have to settlements in the south are small villages, which only contain about twenty people at most." Kaze explained.

"Well I'm not really surprised. If it's survival of the fittest, you can't have large cities with thousands of people. It'd be easy for creatures to attack and destroy buildings." Kyro responded.

"Exactly. You're really smart. I can see why Ivory assigned you with me. I could be the main fighter and you could be the support."

"That's usually Ivory's line of thinking. In battle, she recommends that there'd be the main fighter which would be the melee fighter, while someone else would be the support fighter, meaning either ranged or magic." Kyro explained. "Although it'd be hard for Lily with Tails though. He's only eight years old. It's hard to keep yourself alive and a kid at the same time. According to legends, this cave is a piece of the south."

"That is true. You certainly rely on these legends to update your knowledge don't you?" Kaze asked, changing his interest to the blue fox next to him.

"Yes, but only the true legends. Fake legends don't really help me."

"How can you tell them apart?" Kaze asked.

"I actually research them and check out the reported sites of the legend's existence. I could never find the cave to the legend of the cursed spirit." Kyro answered, running his hands along the cave wall.

"Hm…Well at least you get to find out if it's true." Kaze muttered, looking at his scarred arm. Many cuts filled his arm. Most were just normal scars while others were fresh and still bleeding. The large wolf noticed some more robots further through the tunnel. "Company ahead." Kaze said, taking out his assault rifle.

"Hey, what about this?" Kyro asked, finding a large sniper rifle. "Would this work better?" He handed the rifle to the wolf next to him.

"Well, let's give it a shot. Heheh, get it? Shot?"

Kyro rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Go right ahead."

"All right!" Kaze exclaimed, aiming down the scope at the robot. "Let's try going for a headshot." He moved the rifle up so the robot's head was in the scope. Kaze pulled the trigger and a large and long bullet encased in a solid ice case, providing deeper bullet penetration. The bullet went through the robot's head and it tore into two. "Hahaha! Yeah!"

"Nice shooting." Kyro complimented, walking towards the destroyed robot.

"Thanks. I haven't held one of these babies for years. It feels so good to use big toys for little jobs."

"No, this is a big toy." Kyro corrected, lifting up a nearby Minigun. "God this thing is heavy."

"Oooooh! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Kaze exclaimed with joy, relieving the weight off of Kyro by taking the large gun. "Hoho! Yeah! This is great!" Robots began to run out to the two anthromorphs. "Oh, look! Target practice!" Kaze said enthusiastically. He let bullets fly at the robots with the Minigun. "Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhhh!" He yelled, shooting at the robots, tearing them down one by one. After all of the robots were torn to small pieces by Kaze's newest toy. He felt good by letting those bullets fly. "Wooh! I've never had this much fun before in my life! I'm glad I came back here."

Kyro chuckled, looking over the large wolf. "I'm glad you're having fun, but let's continue. I'll let you rip up the robots from now on."

"Oh, this will be far more fun than last time I was here!" Kaze exclaimed in joy, reloading his Minigun.

Kyro chuckled and continued walking. "Hmmm...I wonder how Ivory and Tails are going….."

"They'll be fine with Ivory around. She's got a couple of pretty neat toys with her. She's no pushover."

"Yeah, they'll be fine. But, you just don't know what to expect here. The legend says that there are more than just robots here. This place is said to also contain monsters from the south to guard the legend and make sure it's safe. And besides, Ivory prefers to keep on going and Tails doesn't have as much stamina as her. He'd slow her down which really irritates her." Kyro said with a sigh.

* * *

Lily continued to walk along her assigned tunnel with Tails. They had encountered quite a number of robots which made Tails quite exhausted. "Ivory, can we stop…Please?" Tails panted.

Lily sighed and nodded. "Yes, but only for a little while…"

Tails sighed in relief, letting himself fall to the ground. "Thank you!"

A few minutes passed and Tails' feet didn't feel any better and he was still exhausted. "Ivory?"

"Call me Lily." Lily revealed her real name. This wasn't something she'd normally do, but she felt like he needed to know.

"Lily? Why Lily?" Tails asked.

"Because that's my real name." Lily replied, looking to where they need to go with a sigh.

"Why were you called Ivory then?" Tails asked.

Lily sighed, standing up. "My mother died a long time ago…I felt like I needed to be strong for Kyro, so I felt that I needed to forget my past….Then I became Ivory. Only my father and Kyro ever called me by my true name….The day after your parent were killed…My father and I talked and sorted things out….Then we talked at length about my mother and how she really died…."

* * *

Day 2: The Real Reasons

_Kyro insisted that I stay at his house that night….To allow me time to cool down and think about things. My father used his time alone thinking about things as well._

Lily walked back to her house to talk with her father. She walked in the door and found her father sitting at his study table. "Father…I…"

Lily's father immediately hugged his daughter. "I'm so sorry. I never thought about those things that you got angry about yesterday. And I regret letting that bastard Vero live. You were right. You were right about everything!"

Lily was shocked. She never thought that she'd actually be right and her father would be wrong. "I'm so sorry about threatening you…..I talked with Kyro and he insisted that I stay at his house for the night to calm myself down."

"I had it coming…..I was and still am a terrible governer. You should be the governer in my place."

"N-No….I couldn't…."

"No. I insist. You would do better than me. You would be able to change this place and make it safer to live in. I am handing over my governer position to you." Her father insisted.

"Well….If you insist….Then I suppose I'll have to accept….Thank you father." Lily accepted. She was well and truly shocked. She did not expect this to happen. They spoke about their plans for the big reveal of the former governer's daughter to take his place for several minutes, before Lily changed the subject asking, "What really happened to mother? How did she really die?"

"Well, you've always wanted to know the truth…And you deserve to know. She….She didn't really die from the last attack by Dr. Eggman….She was severly injured, but the medic could not heal her, so she bled to death…." Lily's father explained with a sigh. "I was heartsick….I really loved her….I was enraged by the fact that the medic could not do anyting to save her, which was the main reason why I locked myself in my study room…." A tear rolled down his eye as he thought back on that day he lost his wife.

Lily sighed and hugged her father. "Thank you for telling me….The real reason why she died…."

"You're welcome…But please, you never told me why you changed your name to Ivory. Would you care to tell me why?" Her father asked.

Lily nodded, sitting down at the dining table and asked her father to sit down as well. Her father nodded and obeyed his daughter. "The reason that I changed my name to Ivory was because…" She began with a sigh. "I felt like I needed to change….To be stronger for Kyro and to protect him…."

"Why did you need to change so you'd be stronger for him?" Lily's father asked, seeming interested in what she had to say.

"I thought that by changing my name…..I could change…Who I was….Which is why I joined the guard, so I'd become stronger…But it wasn't just for Kyro…..I was stricken by grief for mother….So I needed to emotionaly strengthen myself so I wouldn't become an emotional train wreck." Lily replied.

"So you did it for the right reasons then. To strength yourself to protect Kyro and yourself." Lily's father said, looking to his daughter.

Lily nodded. "Yes. I changed my name for exactly those two reasons…Thank you for being able to discuss this with me. I appreciate it. And I appreciate and thank you for giving me the honour of being the governer." Lily said, standing up and giving her father a hug.

"Think nothing of it my child." Her father responded, giving back the hug with a smile. "I'm just glad we were able to sort things out."

"How can I ever repay you father? I mean, it takes more than just a night's thinking to tell me all of this stuff and sort out a serious argument. I'll clean the house, I'll do anything you tell me to." Lily asked with an expression of gratitude.

"The only thing I ask of you is to do a good job at being the governer in my place, and keep smiling, then I'll consider the debt repaid." Her father replied, giving Lily another hug.

"Thank you….Thank you for everything." Lily spoke after a minute of silence.

"Think nothing of it. I love you my daughter."

"I love you too father…"

* * *

"It was all so sudden. It came so quickly. I didn't really know what to say." Lily said to Tails thinking back on that day. "But I had Kyro to thank for it all. It was his idea that I stayed at his house and it was also his idea for me to go see my father and sort our problems out."

"Wow. You must be really glad to have him by your side." Tails spoke, looking down at his trademark white and red shoes.

"I am." Lily responded. "I'm extremely glad. Well, we should keep going Tails. Who knows how further Kyro and Kaze are ahead of us?"

"Okay." Tails said, standing up and taking out his whip.

"Good. Let's go." Lily took out her gunblade and began walking.

"Right! Let's go!" Tails exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Lily chuckled and continued walking. Tails strode alongside her. She reminded him a lot about Kyro, looking down at the young kit with a smile.

* * *

Kaze was well and truly having fun while walking along the tunnel, tearing up robots with his new gun and he had Kyro to thank for finding it. "Hey, by the way, thanks for finding this baby for me." Kaze thanked with a expression of excitement. "I've never had this much fun before!"

"No problem." Kyro chuckled while continuing to stide alongside the big wolf. "Say, Kaze. How old are you?"

Kaze turned to look at Kyro. "I'm fourty-two years old." Kaze replied. "I'd thought I'd explore the north, seeing what it's like here."

"But you were disappointed when you explored and seen some of the places?" Kyro asked, keeping a grip on Faran's handle.

"Yeah. A little bit. I wasn't really surprised though. We are superior compared to the Northerners."

"I can imagine. All extremely tough warriors, in a desperate struggle to keep themselves alive. Sounds something like you'd put in a story." Kyro spoke with a chuckle.

"Yeah, it does a little doesn't it?" Kaze laughed with a loud bark and continued going.

Kyro nodded. "It sounds like a great idea for a story."

"Well I'm glad we can have a real conversation, unlike Ivory. She seems to get fired up at the drop of a hat."

"Not really." Kyro objected. "She just doesn't like people very much when you first see her, but stay around her long enough then she'll turn out to like you."

"And how long does that usually take?" Kaze asked with a sigh.

"Depends on her first impression of you, and what she thinks of you." Kyro replied, taking out Faran and threw it up in the air.

"Women are so complex here in the north." Kaze complained.

Kyro chuckled, before catching Faran and putting it back in it's sheathe. "You might as well just go back to the south with you complaining like that."

Kaze shrugged. "Meh, might as well. I think I've seen enough, but I might as well help you three kids get to find what you're looking for."

"We really appreciate the help. Thank you."

Kaze chuckled. "Think nothing of it. I'm glad to help." More robots came at the two anthromorphs. "Oh, hell yeah!" Kaze shouted, letting bullets fly at the robots, tearing them apart. "Woooohoooo! Yeah! Take that you stupid pieces of rust!" Then suddenly, a loud roar came from beyond the tunnel. Kaze's joyful expression immediately turned into seriousness. "That doesn't sound good." The roar was heard once again. "Hey, kid? You ever seen a southern creature before?"

Kyro shook his head and tightly gripped Faran. "No, not yet."

"Well that's about to change right here, right now." As soon as Kaze said those words, a giant dragon-like creature flew at the pair of anthromorphs.

Kyro immediately felt panic and fear strike him. He never expected creatures of the south to be this fearsome. "Holy shit!" Kyro shouted, stepping backwards.

"Woah! What are you doing all the way out here big fella?" Kaze asked the creature, walking up to it slowly.

The creature roared loudly as a response.

"Ah...I see." Kaze nodded as if he understood what the roar meant. "Would you mind speaking English though please so that my friend can understand. He's probably very confused right now."

The beast nodded its head. "I take it he is not from the south then?" The beast asked in fluent English.

Kaze shook his head. "No. He is not from the south."

"He is waiting for you Kaze and your friends too. Please proceed at once." The giant bird instructed.

Kaze nodded. "Come on kiddo, let's hitch a ride." He said to Kyro, jumping onto the bird.

"We're actually going to ride that? Are you out of your mind?"

Kaze sighed. "...Northerners...Would you rather me leave you behind?"

Kyro looked down at the ground. "...No..."

"Then hurry up and get on board then!" Kaze exclaimed, putting on his joyful expression once more. Kyro nodded, muttering to himself as he hopped on board the large creature. "Better hold on tight kid!" Kaze warned, doing so himself. Kyro nodded and did the same. "Alright! Let's go!" The beast roared and sped off further into the tunnel.

"WWWWOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHH!" Kyro screamed, holding on extremely tightly to the creature.

"WOOOHOOOO! YEAH! THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Kaze screamed, enjoying the ride.

The creature chuckled to itself, going even faster through the tunnel.

* * *

"WOOOHOOOO! YEAH! THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Kaze's voice was be heard from where Lily and Tails were standing.

"They must be having fun." Lily spoke, continuing along the tunnel with the young, yellow fox.

"I can imagine them doing that." Tails said with a smile and a chuckle.

"At any rate we should keep going. By the sounds of things, we're not very far off from reuniting with the others. Lily said, holding onto her necklace. Tails nodded and continued walking along, humming some sort of tune.

"Lily?" Tails asked. "Why did Eggman attack your town? I mean, he should have a reason. Did he?"

Lily nodded. "Yes, he did."

* * *

Day 2: The Unknown Agreement

_After my father revealed to the community that I was to take his place as governer, we all celebrated in the town hall that night. We had a feast, full of delicious food, and many exciting events like dancing, live performances and all that._

The whole town gathered in the hall that night. Many plates of food filled the council table where the governer held his meetings, but now the governer was a female, for the first time in Grulander Falls history. "I would like to make an announcement!" The town members stopped their chattering and looked towards the former governer. "I have decided, with much thought to hand over my job as governer to my daughter Ivory. She will most certainly be a valuable asset to this town and I'd like everyone, to accept her." The town began cheering and clapping for the new governer of Grulander Falls. "Ivory, would you like to say something?"

Lily inhaled and nodded, standing up and walking to the podium. Kyro was incredibly proud of his childhood friend and looked to her with a look of cheerfulness. "I...I don't know what to say...I have to admit, I was very shocked when my father handed his position of being governer over to me." The pink furry fox began. "But I am extremely appreciative for this opportunity, and I will strive to keep peace and order in this town and I will help as much as I can, whenever it is needed. This is my promise to you, the people of Grulander Falls. As the governer of this town, I will always put it and everyone first before myself, and I will strive to keep it as the paradise it was founded to be!" Lily said, proudly. "That is all..." She concluded with a bow, striding back to take a seat next to her father.

After a minute of silence, the town hall bursted into a cheerfest. Everyone was cheering and clapping, and welcoming the first female governer. The town began to dance and sing outside of the town hall as was tradition for welcoming the new governer. Kyro walked over to Lily's side. "I am so proud of you Lily. You kept your head held high and won the people's approval. Congratulations!" Kyro exclaimed with a joyful expression, hugging the young adult.

Lily smiled and hugged Kyro back. "I do have you to thank for it. If you did not stop me yesterday, none of this would've happened. Thank you, Kyro. Thank you so much."

Kyro chuckled. "You're welcome. Now come on! Let's go have some fun!"

Lily smiled and nodded. "Alright. It is traditional after all to celebrate. Might as well have some fun while I'm at it. Let's go." Lily laughed, wrapping her arm around Kyro. Her smile turned into a frown when she heard screaming outside of the town hall. Lily and Kyro ran outside to find Eggman in a floating ball-like vehicle.

"HOHOHOHOHO!" Eggman laughed.

"Eggman...What are you doing here?" Lily demanded.

"I wish to talk to the governer. Where is he?" Eggman demanded.

"That's 'her' thank you very much!" Lily snapped.

"Well, 'him', 'her', whatever! Bring the governer here so I can talk to them! Unless you want me to destroy the town!"

"You're talking to her right now. Now get out of here before I cut up your little vehicle!" Lily said angrily.

"You? You are the governer now? Hahahahaha! Anyway, I'm in a cash flow crunch at the moment so your payment will have to come earlier. You have a week to comply unless you want your so called 'paradise' to become a pile of rubble!" Eggman explained before laughing and flying off.

"Payment? What payment? It seems my father has more explaining that needs to be done. But not now...This is a time of celebration." Lily muttered. "People, please! Do not worry! This is a happy occasion! Do not let Eggman fear you tonight! Now let's continue the fun!" Lily yelled to the townspeople.

The citizens nodded and began singing and dancing once more.

* * *

"The night went exactly like it was supposed to be except we could've done without Eggman's unexpected visit. But I never knew of any payments that we owed Eggman. Either he was up to something, or my father was hiding something from me." Lily said with a sigh, looking through the tunnel to find a large shadow approaching. Lily took out her sword and waited for whatever was there to reveal itself.

Then Kaze's joyful screaming came from the tunnel. "OH COME ON! LET'S GO FASTER!"

"ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! WE'VE BEEN GOING FAST FOR THE PAST FIVE MINUTES! AND YOU WANT TO GO FASTER! YOU'RE INSANE!" Kyro shouted.

The beast revealed itself and perched down on the ground next to Lily and Tails. "Heheh, miss us?" Kaze asked.

Lily shrugged and hopped onto the beast. "I missed Kyro. Not you."

"Hmph." Kaze grunted, looking to the yellowish fox. "Come on kid! This creature will help us get where we need to go faster. And besides, it's a nice, super-quick ride."

Tails nodded and flew on board, holding onto the beast tightly.

"Okay! Let's go flat out!" Kaze exclaimed, ordering the beast forward at full speed. The beast laughed and sped off at the instructed speed.

_We were headed for the end of the cave in hopes to discover if the legend was true. But, Kyro, Tails or Kaze did not know that what we were about to do would change our lives forever..._

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Any helpful criticism will be extremely appreciated. And remember, please don't flame, that is also appreciated. Thanks for reading and putting up with the long wait for chapter three. Chapter five will be developed and on FF sometime during this week and next. This chapter was one of the reasons this fanfic was rated T.

TheCursed54 ^^


	5. Our Future, And Our Fate

This chapter turned out to be shorter than the last two chapters, but I still hope it's good enough for enjoyment.

* * *

Chapter 5: Our Future, And Our Fate

* * *

The way to the end of the cave was filled with Kaze enjoyment riding the large dragon-like creature and Kyro screaming to want to get off. Finally, they got to the end of the cave where they finally got to get off. Kaze wasn't happy about this but the creature could not go through what the four anthromorphs were about to. A normal-sized mechanical door stood in their way, and a certain familar symbol had been displayed in red.

_At this point...None of us had any idea what to expect. Not even Kaze had been through that door..._

A large wall crashed down behind them, trapping them in the cave. "Well, I guess we can't go back the way we came in." Kaze muttered with a sigh.

Lily walked to the door in front of them. She touched the red symbol, but nothing happened. "What do you suppose this is?"

Kyro walked to the door, examining the symbol in front of them. "Hmm...It looks like some kind of seal...Kaze, do you know something about this door?"

"Nope. I met the spirit here." Kaze replied.

"You have done well Kaze. Why don't you...How shall we say it...Sleep it off." A voice called out through the cave. Immediately, a red crystal ball encircled Kaze, lifting him up into the air.

"What the? What the hell is going on?" Kaze yelled. "You'd better get explaining spirit!"

"You completed what was needed to be done Kaze, now you will be rewarded." The voice bellowed through the cave, making everyone shiver.

Kyro gasped. "Lily...The legend...It's true."

"No kidding." Lily replied, watching the crystal ball around Kaze close in. The crystal fully encased Kaze, instantly putting him asleep. Then, a large crystallic flower bloomed under the crystallized wolf.

Lily, Kyro and Tails stood agape at the sight in front of them. "I...I could never have imagined that the legend was real..." Lily muttered, staring at the crystal Kaze.

"Wow..." Tails said, simply, staring at the sight in front of him.

"Hmm...Yes I can see that all of you are amazed at the sight in front of you...But you are mine now! Hahahaha!" The voice yelled with an evil laugh.

"It must be the spirit. Our marks will be branded. We will be cursed now..." Kyro muttered. "Great...This is what I need, an eternal sleep or a fate worse than death itself...God damnit!"

Tails walked back up to the door where the red symbol was being displayed. The symbol looked a lot like the mark on his neck. He sighed and turned around for a moment. The symbol disappeared and the door turned red, before disappearing into thin air. "Tails, you opened the door. How?" Lily asked, walking up to look inside the doorway. They were in the insides of a large tree, with special artifacts lying everywhere and ancient gold as well. The spirit from the legends appeared in front of them. The spirit was twice the size of Lily and Kyro put together. It looked down upon the three foxes and laughed. Then, all of a sudden, white, transparent vines shout out and wrapped around Kyro, Lily and Tails, before shooting some kind of energy at the three helpless foxes, branding their marks with a yellow eye, just like Kaze's. The room turned black and the only things visible, were the spirit and the three cursed foxes. Kyro, Lily and Tails had all blacked out after being shot with the energy. The spirit sent the three of them away, teleporting them to a random location.

The three foxes all saw something, it was cloudy, so they couldn't detect it properly.

_Then...darkness.

* * *

_

Tails was the first to wake up, standing up and surveying the area around him. He immediately found Lily and Kyro, both still unconscious. The area they were in looked like a jungle, covered in a thick, yellow fog. "W-Where are we?" Tails asked himself, rubbing his head as he began to get a headache.

Lily was the next to awaken, standing up and looking down at her shoulder. "It's just as the legends go..." Lily muttered. "We are all cursed now, doomed to a mission..." She looked up at Tails, before walking to him. She turned Tails around and looked through the short fur, at the mark which also had a bright yellow eye on it.

Tails looked Lily in the eye and found that her pupils had a faint shade of yellow in the middle of them. "Lily. Your pupils...They have a faint yellow in the middle of them..."

"It's just as the legend say." Kyro said, standing up and looking to Tails who also had a faint yellow in his pupils. Tails noticed that Kyro had the faint shade of yellow too.

"You both have yellow in your pupils." Tails observed.

"We all do. When your pupils fully turn yellow, then it's the end." Lily nodded with a sigh.

"Oh...So we're all doomed..." Tails murmured, looking down to the foggy ground.

Lily sighed. "I'm afraid so Tails...I'm sorry...I shouldn't have brought any of you into this...I should've just dropped it..."

"It's fine Lily." Kyro assured with a smile. "We were all curious. We just didn't have the guts to find out..."

"And it's because I did that we're in this mess to begin with..." Lily sighed, taking out her sword and struck at a slim tree, cutting it down. "W-Wait a minute...I've been here before..."

"You have? Where are we then?" Tails asked, his expression brightening.

"We seem to be in the Ahk'to Jungle which is located in the Southern Lowlands." Lily replied, looking up. The sky could not be seen because of the dense fog surrounding them.

"W-We're in the south?" Kyro stuttered, looking to Lily with worry.

"Yes we are. The spirit must've teleported us here, because there is a shrine there that involves the knowledge of the legend we have just become part of. Maybe we can find a few answers about our mission." Lily answered, looking to Kyro, sensing the worry on his face, before giving him a hug. "But don't worry. The creatures in this jungle are much like the ones from the north, although a little bit stronger. But they won't be a problem. Not while I'm here." She assured, breaking the hug and smiling at Kyro.

Kyro smiled with a blush and leant back in for another hug. "I know. We won't have any trouble with you here, with your strength and abilities."

Tails frowned, beginning to pace around the forest clearing. "I thought the south was more scenic, according to Kaze anyway." Tails spoke, feeling a bit disappointed with the scenery around him.

Lily smirked with a chuckle. "This is the first time you've been to the south. And besides, we're in the Ahk'To Jungle, there's nothing out of the ordinary here. But when we're out of the jungle, you'll be in for a big surprise. But before we can leave, we have to find that shrine. Remember, we're on a time limit, we need to act quickly before time runs out." Lily began to run into the jungle. Tails and Kyro both began to follow Lily at the same pace.

_We were cursed...Doomed to follow a mission...That we had to do within a certain time limit...But we are told nothing...Nothing about what we have to do...If my curiousity didn't get ahead of me...Then none of us would've been in this mess..._

The three cursed foxes continued wandering around the jungle. "Do you know where you're going Lily? It feels like we've been running for ages!" Tails complained, struggling to keep running.

"Yes, my tracks are still here from last time I was here. I've been to the shrine as well. But I did not take the time to read the information there, so I know exactly where we're going." Lily assured, slowing down to a walk to let the eight year-old kitsune catch up.

"Oh, good. I was afraid we were running around in circles." Tails panted. "Thanks for slowing down."

Liy sniffed the air around her, before taking out her gunblade. "We have company." Lily warned, getting into her usual stance.

Tails groaned. "Awww...Why now?" The kit complained.

Kyro gripped Faran tightly and got into his stance. "Alright, just stay out of the way." Lily said irritably. A larger than average wolf rushed towards them.

"The usual strategy?" Kyro asked.

Lily nodded. "Yes. This beast is weak against fire, so any fire-based spells will work well against this monster. You assault it with fire spells and I'll keep it occupied."

Kyro nodded. "Right. Let's do this!" Lily immediately began to slash the wolf in front of them. Kyro did as Lily instructed by shooting fire spells at the wolf. At this point, the wolf was only just getting started, slowing buiding up energy by the damage it's taking. "Why isn't it attacking us?" Kyro asked, readying up another fire spell.

"It's building up energy. We have to kill it before it releases its energy and does some potentially lethal damage." Lily replied, quickly slashing it with her Blaze Edge sword. Kyro began flinging more fire spells at the monster. The horn on its head began to glow a dark red. "Oh no...Quickly! Assault it with your weapon Kyro! Now!" Kyro nodded and got out Felywin, digging it into his hand, and throwing the blood at the wolf, turning into a small ball of blood, shooting out blood red vines at the wolf.

"That should hold it off for now. Let's kill it while we can." Kyro spoke before, continuing to slash at the wolf with both blades. The vines were ripped apart by the wolf's horn and continued building up the energy.

"This isn't good..." Lily muttered, continuing to slash the wolf. All of a sudden, a whip shot out and stabbed the wolf, killing it. It was Tails. He was watching the whole fight and when they were going to be in trouble, the kit decided to step in and do something. Kyro and Lily both turned to look at Tails after he yanked out the whip.

"Poison tipped spikes, it makes things so much easier when dealing with enemies." Tails said with an accomplished smile.

Lily smiled. "Thank you Tails. Wasn't sure how we'd get out of that predicament."

Tails chuckled. "You're welcome."

"Hey! I can see the shrine over there!" Kyro exclaimed, pointing to a large shadow which was the shape of a building before running off to check if it was. Lily looked up and began to run to the shrine in front of them, as well as Tails.

The shrine was clear when the three entered. It was morning. They must've been unconscious for quite a while. Tails could see the clear sky and the sun shining down on the shrine. "Wow. This shrine is amazing!"

"Yes it is, isn't it?" Lily spoke, walking further into the shrine. Stone tablets lined the pathway to a large statue, resembling the spirit who cursed the trio. Kyro was reading the one closest to the shrine entrance. Lily decided to also read the stone tablet. _"This is the shrine of the ancient spiritual god, Tylkior, the god of transformation." _Lily read in her mind. _"So Tylkior is the spirit..." _She continued to read the stone tablet. _"Anyone, bearing the mark of the south will be given a certain mission of the god's choosing if they dared look for the ancient god. A yellow eye is imprinted on this mark and their eyes are infused with a slow-acting transformation agent, which gradually turns the pupils of the cursed eyes yellow. If the cursed does not complete his or her mission within the time their pupils turn a full yellow, then they will turn into a horrific creature called the Vek'ta. The types of Vek'ta vary according to the strength of the cursed...Preying on humans, anthromorphs and the like. In fact, it's the very reason the south is in its current state."_

"Interesting isn't it?" Kyro asked, walking to the next tablet behind him and began to read.

"So the spirit was really a god, huh?" Lily said with a sigh. "Tylkior must be having fun cursing us and transforming us..."

Kyro continued to read the second tablet. _"The cursed are called the Kertaia, they are given the powers of summoning certain special creatures called Aeons. Only one Aeon is permitted per Kertaia. When the Aeon appears is unknown, but when it does, it gives the Kertaia a life or death trial to overcome."_ Kyro stopped and looked to Lily. "Hey, Lily. Come over here for a second."

Lily walked over to her little brother. "Yes? What is it?" She asked softly.

"Read the first paragraph. I think you'll find it interesting." Kyro said, reading the second.

Lily began to read. After she was finished, she said, "Wow, interesting. We can summon only one Aeon, but they are of great strength. It will appear some time during our path as a Kertaia and it will give us a life or death trial to overcome. If we succeed, then we get to control the Aeon and summon it whenever it is neccessary." She summarized. "Hmph. Interesting indeed."

They spent quite some time reading every stone tablet in the shrine. And they each had quite an idea about their future, and their fate. Tails was quite saddened, by what he was reading. "So...We're doomed...Either by crystal...Or by monster..."

Kyro put his hand on Tails' shoulder. "Hey. It's not the end. No one has ever been around for eternity. We might change back."

"Admit it! It's over! Our lives are over!" Tails shouted, sliding down from the wall to the ground and began to cry.

Kyro walked over and sat down next to Tails. "Don't be sad...It's okay..."

"No it's not..." Tails sobbed, letting his head fall on Kyro's shoulder. "It's over for all of us!"

"You're not the only one who's facing this ordeal. We're here with you, to help you through this." Lily assured, kneeling down to look the young fox in the eye. "We can't let grief overcome us, it will make our fate come to us quicker. We have to be positive and keep moving. You understand?"

The teary-eyed kit looked at Lily and nodded slowly with a sniffle. "Yes I do..."

Lily nodded with a smile. "Good. Now let's go. You deserve to see a magnificent sight. We should go now to get there quicker." Lily said, holding out a hand to help Tails up. Tails smiled and grabbed Lily's hand, being pulled up by the pink fox.

"Thank you." Tails smiled.

Lily smiled and offered to help Kyro up as well. Kyro nodded and took her hand, being lifted up by Lily. "Thank you." Kyro straightened out his clothes and made his way to the entrance of the shrine.

Lily lightly tapped Tails' back with her palm. "Come on kid, let's go." She said, making her way to the entrance. Tails nodded with a sniffle, following along with Lily. The three continued to navigate their way through the Ahk'To Jungle. Kyro and Tails still could not believe that they were in the south, and they were both intimidated by this fact. Lily however, was quite confident and glad that she was back in the south. Since coming back from the south, the young adult fox had always missed the sights and she could never and would never forget what she saw. She promised to take Kyro to the south to see these sights one day, and she was extremely happy that she was able to keep it. Lily smiled as the three continued to trudge through the large jungle.

"_I wonder if Sonic has ever been in the south." _Tails pondered in his mind. He was extremely pleased with the architecture of the small shrine about the god who ruined their lives. What the other two foxes might not have noticed was a large chip of the stone tablet lying on the ground next to the statue, contained information about something that really made Tails' heart sink. _"Anyone who would become Kertaia would instantly become an enemy human and anthromorphic races from both the north and south. The Kertaia would become unwelcome everywhere and they will be attacked." _He replayed in his mind. Another small tear ran down his cheek. He felt that he would never be able to see Sonic ever again, which made more tears fall down his face.

Kyro noticed the young fox crying and found out why by reading his mind. After determining what was wrong with Tails, Kyro picked up the pace to catch up more with Lily, if there was anyone out of the two who could comfort the emotional fox, it would be Lily more than him. "He's crying again. He's afraid he won't see Sonic again."

Lily turned her head to look Kyro in the eye. "He will see him again, he can count on it." Lily assured with a confident smile.

Kyro shook his head. "No. There was something there that we didn't see that Tails did." Kyro said. "I was reading Tails' mind. And according to what he was thinking, we are now enemies to the people of both the south and the north...He won't be able to see Sonic without being attacked."

"That doesn't mean it won't happen." Lily said with a more serious expression. "We can send Sonic a message. Can you still connect and talk with birds?" The pink fox asked, taking out a pen and paper and began writing down a little note. "The birds here are capable of speaking English, however they prefer not to." She said, finishing off the note and slipping it into an envelope and handed it to Kyro. "Would you be able to send this message to him next time we see a bird, please?"

Kyro nodded and took the note, putting it into his pocket. "You want to make Tails feel better, right?" Kyro asked looking down on the ground he was walking on. "You want him to stop being sad and keep on going with a smile, don't you?"

Lily sighed with a nod. Thankfully, Tails was too deep in his thoughts for him to hear the conversation the two foxes were engaged in. "This would be really hard for Tails to deal with. I would like him, and you to continue on with a smile to the both of your faces and no tears. I figure, by Sonic seeing him, would brighten up his mood." Lily explained softly with a sad expression of her own.

Kyro looked up at Lily and noticed the sad expression on her face. The blue fox wrapped his arm around Lily's back. "Hey, don't be sad. I'll get this message to Sonic one way or another. I want to see Tails happy as well, and you. So, let's continue on with a smile, on all of our faces." Kyro smiled, giving her big sis a hug.

Lily smiled, returning the hug. "Okay, I'll try harder from now on. And besides, I already feel better because of that hug you just gave me." Lily said, resting her head on Kyro's. "I promised you I'd take you here one day. I'm glad I could keep and fufill it. I was losing my hope of leaving again to go there and take you along with me."

Kyro nodded, leaning slightly against Lily's side. "Yeah, you did promise me. And I'm also glad and very appreciative that it had been fufilled. Thank you Sis."

Lily chuckled, rubbing Kyro's side softly. "You're welcome, Kyro. I'm happy to show you what the south really looks like."

Kyro smiled up at his big sister, before beginning to play around with the necklace wrapped around his neck. "It's hard to believe that we were part of the south once. Why is it like that?"

"My father told me why after I asked him the day after I became governer." Lily replied, looking up at the fog-filled sky.

* * *

Day 3 - The True Reason For Settlement

_I was extremely appreciative for my father giving me his position as governer. So I tried as much I could to repay the enormous debt...But, I needed answers...I had to know why we were settled here in the first place when we have marks of the south. And I had to know about the so-called 'payment' that we owed Dr. Eggman...So I made him lunch and sat down to discuss it with him._

Lily's father, the former governer, was sitting at the dining table, eating part of a loaf of bread that Lily cooked specially for him while drinking a coffee that was also made by his daughter. "You really didn't have to do this Lily. I was perfectly fine in buying some from the shop."

"It's no hassle, I want to repay you for giving me your position." Lily said, sitting down next to her father with a cup of tea in her hand. "Say, father. Do you know why we settled here in the first place?"

"Hm? Why do you ask?" The former governer asked.

"Well, when I was at the south, I came upon a shrine, and I began reading one of the stone tablets there. It had information about everyone with the mark of the south, does that mean the marks we have?" Lily asked.

The governer thought it over for a couple of seconds before nodding. "Yes, our ancestors were originally from the south, which explains why we all have these marks." Lily's father replied before changing the subject back to the reason for settlement in the north. "The beasts in the south were getting too much for a lot of us to bear, and their children were being slaughtered every night. So, they decided to move to the north, and settled here. This town was originally named Ma'hakabra. But, because of outrage in the nearby towns, we changed the name of the town to Grulander Falls." Lily nodded, seeming very interested in the subject at hand. Her father took another sip of his coffee before continuing, "But our family has been the governer ever since we settled Ma'hakabra."

Lily blinked before taking a sip of her tea. "Really? But Flerinium doesn't sound like a Southern name. It sounds more Northern."

"Well...Our last name isn't really Flerinium. None of our original last names were northern. They were made like this to blend into the northern world." Lily's father admitted, taking another sip. "Our real last name is Tailliebra."

"Huh..." Lily stared blankly down at her cup of tea. "...Lily...Tailliebra...It certainly fits doesn't it?"

Her father nodded. "It's the very reason we gave you the name to begin with. It sounded nice with our true last name."

The subject about the payment the town owed Eggman suddenly popped into Lily's mind. "Listen, father, do you know about any payment that we owed Dr. Eggman?" Lily asked.

Lily's father sighed. "I knew you'd ask that, as soon as I heard Eggman's evil laugh."

Lily laughed. "Hahahaha! It doesn't sound all that evil, you have to admit!" Lily joked, thinking to lighten the mood.

Lily's father nodded with a soft chuckle before taking another sip. "But, yes. I do know about the payment." He cleared his throat, changing back to their previous discussion. "Your grandfather was stupid enough to make an alliance with the evil doctor. He figured, that by paying Eggman a considerable amount of money, he could protect the town. It was a stupid idea if you ask me!" The former goverer grunted, taking another sip of his coffee. "He has nothing to protect us against! And now, because we have been having problems with our treasury, and we haven't been able to pay, so he's been threatening us to destroy the town if we do not pay him. But we can't afford the debt. We have no more money left to give to him..."

"So, we're screwed then? There's nothing we can do?" Lily asked, standing up.

"No, there is nothing we can do. He will destroy the town..."

Lily growled and smashed the table with her fists. "Damn it! We can't give up now! We have to evacuate the town immediately. We can't take any chances! I will not allow any citizens here to be killed! We're going to have a full town meeting immediately! Get everyone into the town hall and I will meet you there." Lily ordered, walking out of the house calmly to make her way to the town hall.

* * *

"But no on there would listen...No matter how hard I tried to appeal to them, I couldn't get them to leave...It's all my fault..." Lily murmured, tightly gripping her necklace.

"Hey, don't feel bad. It's not your fault they wouldn't..." Kyro was cut off by a sudden thud on the ground. Both Kyro and Lily looked behind them to find that Tails had collapsed. "Tails!" Kyro shouted, running to the kit's side and began to shake him awake. "Come on! Wake up!"

Lily looked down at the comatose fox. "He must be tired...We'll make camp here tonight. He must've fainted from exhaustion and the heat here. We should make camp near a pond, so we can find some drinking water. We can't have him dehydrated." Lily picked up Tails' limp, small body and began carrying him to the nearest pond they could find so they could set up camp. Kyro nodded and began following. An hour passed before the three foxes managed to get to a pond, but Tails had not improved in that hour, despite the fact that it became night time and the heat had been replaced with the cold. Lily discovered that camp equipment was already set up at that area. "It's still here." Lily spoke, laying Tails down on the bedroll. "I can't believe that after all of these years, my campsite is still intact."

Kyro blinked. "This is your campsite?" Kyro asked, taking out a bottle from his pack and walked to the pond and began filling it up with water. Night had finally fallen in what seemed like a long day for the three foxes. The yellow fog had cleared and many stars aligned the sky in a beautiful pattern. The blue fox had finished gathering up water and brought it to the unconscious Tails and opened the fox's mouth and began pouring the clean contents to quench Tails' thirst. Tails seemed to have no problem with swallowing the water.

The kit's eyes opened slowly as he felt better after being given the water. "Ugh..." The fox groaned, clutching his head as he had a throbbing pain in his head. "Owwww..."

"Hahaha. It lives." Lily joked with a chuckle. "How are you feeling, short stuff?"

"I have a giant headache and I'm really thirsty and hot." Tails replied with a whimper as he noticed the lake and began to drink from it. After he was finished drinking, he crawled back to the bedroll he was just on and lied down. "Hey, wait. It wasn't night time last time I checked!"

"You were unconscious for an hour. You really gave us a bit of a scare." Kyro informed the confused fox.

"I was?" Tails asked, sitting up. A loud growl came from the fox's stomach. Tails blushed and looked down at his stomach, chuckling.

"I'll go look for some food for us." Lily said with a smile before walking off to do exactly that.

Tails sighed in relief, before lying down. Kyro, sat down next to him and began patting Tails' head fur. "Try and get some sleep, kit." Kyro spoke after a minute of silence. "Your empty stomach will bother you less." Tails nodded and turned over, closing his eyes and beginning to drift off to sleep. Kyro continued to pat the kit's head as soft snoozing noises came from Tails. Kyro chuckled softly and continued to pat Tails' head.

* * *

Like I said at the start of the chapter, it's shorter than the last two I made, but it doesn't really matter though does it? Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed it and please review. I know I say that about every chapter and it might probably be annoying, but I'd really appreciate it if you told me what you thought about this story and if you liked it thus far.

TheCursed54 ^^


	6. A New Visitor

Chapter 6 - A New Visitor

* * *

Sonic finally woke up from being unconscious falling from the top of Eggman's base. Sonic yawned and stood up, walking to the window and looked outside. It seemed like the average, normal night, except there was one problem, Tails wasn't there in the room with him. "Hmm...That's odd...Normally Tails would be here by now to check on me...Maybe he's still sleeping back at the house after a long day of working on his inventions." Sonic thought aloud, jumping out of the window and sped off towards his little brother's house. Sonic jumped through the window of the house like he always did. "Tails?" Sonic called out. There was no answer. "Tails, buddy! It's me Sonic! Are you home?"

There was still no answer. "...Huh." Sonic sighed. "He's always been a sound sleeper. I'm going to see if he's in his room." Sonic declared, walking up the stairs the fox's room. He was nowhere to be seen. "Hmm...Maybe he's gone to visit Amy or Cream. Surely one of them must've invited Tails over for dinner. I'll check Cream's house first." Sonic said, jumping out the window and sped off to Cream's house. Instead of jumping through the window like he usually did when entering his brother's house, he knocked on the door politely and simply waited for someone to answer.

Cream's mother, Vanilla answered the door, looking down to Sonic. "Oh, Sonic. You're alright now." The motherly rabbit said gleefully. "Just a sec, I'll tell the others." She said, running off to find everyone else in the house. Only Amy, Cream and Cheese walked out along with Vanilla which disappointed the blue hedgehog a little bit.

"Well, it's about time you woke up!" Amy yelled impaitently, tightly hugging Sonic.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too Amy." Sonic responded sarcastically.

"Yay! You're alright!" Cream cheered with a smile.

"Chao Chao!" Cream's chao, Cheese said, flying around the blue hedgehog's head.

Sonic chuckled but felt a bit disappointed. Vanilla immediately sensed this and walked up to Sonic's side. "What's wrong?" The rabbit asked. "You seem disappointed about something." It was like Vanilla could read Sonic's mind.

Sonic sighed with a nod. "I was going to ask if Tails was there with you, but I guess he's not..." Sonic replied. "It's not like him to leave town without telling anyone."

"Wait, I saw him with two foxes, heading towards the forest." Cream said.

"Which two foxes sweetie?" Vanilla asked her daughter.

"They were both at the hospital room with Mr. Sonic, didn't you see them? The blue one was responsible for healing Mr. Sonic's...uhh..." Cream searched for the word that was used.

"His internal wounds, sweetie. Yes, one of the foxes that were staying with Tails healed your wounds Sonic." Vanilla informed the confused hedgehog. "There were two of them staying with Tails, right?"

"Yeah." Sonic nodded. "The pink furred one's name is Ivory and the other one which is the blue furred one, his name is Kyro."

"Yeah. I found Kyro and Ivory, with Tails, leading him into the forest." Cream said.

"But there are fiends in the forest...Did they say to you three where they were going?" Sonic asked, feeling somewhat concerned for his brother's well-being.

"Nope. I only saw them heading off when I was playing outside with Cheese and Amy." Cream replied.

"Oh...Okay, then. Thanks anyway!" Sonic yelled, waving at the four before speeding off into the forest to find his brother.

"Why did Tails go with those two foxes? Does he know them?" Cream asked, looking up to her mother for an answer.

"I'd say the two foxes kidnapped Tails! When they come up out of nowhere and they walk off with Tails with them, something has to be fishy!" Amy answered for Cream's mother, although that wasn't what Vanilla was going to say. "They had to have captured him! Maybe they work for Eggman!"

"That's impossible..." An unknown female voice muttered from next to the house. The four gasped and turned around to find out where the voice came from. The female skipped out into the light, humming to herself where she could be seen. She wore a grey cloak so nobody could see her face, but telling by her muzzle and tail, she looked like an anthromorphic cat. She had orange and white fur and she looked pretty young with her figure.

Amy immediately drew her trusty Piko-Piko Hammer. "Who are you?" Amy demanded with a frown.

The young cat girl giggled, lifting up her hood. She had long, orange hair tied up in a ponytail that curled over her shoulder. "My name is Ailyia." Ailyla replied in a cheerful tone.

"Hello. My name's Cream." Cream introduced with a cheerful smile. "This is Amy." Cream pointed to Amy, then Vanilla. "This is my mother, Vanilla." Then she held out her hands with Cheese in her hands. "And this is Cheese."

Vanilla held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, sweetie." Vanilla said sweetly.

Ailyia giggled and grabbed Vanilla's hand and shook it softly. "Nice to meet you too, Ms. Vanilla."

"My, you're a polite young girl. How old are you?" Vanilla complimented with a sweet smile.

"I'm nineteen years old." Ailyia replied sweetly with a soft giggle.

"Wow, you sure are cheerful." Amy commented. "But you said it was impossible that those two foxes could be working for Eggman. Why would you say that?" She asked, uncertain about Ailyia's interruption.

"Well...Haven't you heard?" Ailyia asked. "Eggman was killed late last night." She still kept her cheerful tone with her hands on her hips.

"How do you know?" Amy snapped. She really didn't want to get her hopes up and she didn't trust the cat in front of her.

"Well, come with me and see for yourself if you don't believe me. But beware, the sight is not pretty. You might be traumatized if you see it." Despite the sudden increase in Amy's voice, her expression didn't change and her tone was still extremely cheerful which kind of freaked Amy out a bit. "Plus, I also know where your foxy friend is at."

"Where is he? Has he been kidnapped?" Cream asked with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Ailyia shook her head. "Nope. Kyro and Ivory were taking him to his home town in Grulander Falls, which was destroyed a couple of years ago by Egghead." Ailylia replied, using Sonic's nickname for the deceased doctor. "And he wasn't forced to go with them. He volunteered."

"Can you take us to him please?" Cream asked politely with her hands behind her back and swaying from side to side.

"I don't think you'd want to see him. He's in the south now with Kyro and Ivory."

"The south? What a load of crud! There's no way he could get to the south and live! I have had enough with your lies! TELL ME NOW!" Amy let her rage fly at the young cat and got right in her face.

However, Ailyia wasn't the slightest intimidated. "Hehe, your breath smells nice. All minty!" She giggled.

"How could you not be scared of me? I'm angry at you! Why are you still smiling?" Amy asked irritably, although blushing at Ailyia's comment. "But, thank you for your compliment."

"Tehe! You're welcome!" Ailyia replied, skipping along the pathway. But she turned and her expression was more serious and her voice was darker when she said, "But I have been telling the truth the entire time." Her face looked blank as she slowly crept up to Amy. "So, don't tell me what the truth is if you don't know it."

Amy gasped and looked to Cream, Cheese and Vanilla, whom were all unconscious and on the ground. She gasped again and looked to Ailyia with horror. "Okay, okay. I believe you! Please! Stop being so scary!"

Ailyia turned and in an instant, Cream, Cheese and Vanilla stood up, each clutching their heads as they felt a small throbbing inside their head. Ailyia turned back and had her sweet, cheerful face once more.

Amy could not believe her eyes. One moment, she was as cheerful as could be, even though she was talking about death. Another moment, her face was blank and her voice was dark and scary. Then, the next moment, she was cheerful again. "Well, then. Would you be so kind to us as to take us to the south and get Sonic to go there too?"

"Of course! I can tell him to come back to town right now!" Ailyia exclaimed cheerfully, before closing her eyes and clasped her hands together. A couple of second later, she collapsed. She wasn't breathing, she didn't have a pulse. The four didn't know what to do with her so they decided to call the ambulance.

* * *

Sonic was speeding along through the forests, avoiding any fiends he came across. He was more concerned about his brother than playing with wild animals, before something went through his mind. He immediately stopped, and began screaming, tightly clutching his head.

"Hello Sonic. I've been wanting to make your accquaintance for quite some time." A cheerful voice greeted in his head. "I'm Ailyia, and I have the ability to penetrate and enter people's minds."

"Nnnghhh...Get...Out...Of my head." Sonic moaned weakly. His head felt like it was burning.

"I'm just entering your mind to say that you're needed back at the town. We need to discuss some things and it involves your brother, Tails." Ailyia informed. "I know exactly where he is and why he is there. But I can't tell you like this because you will be too weak to move after I would be done with the explanation. If you want to know these things, hurry to Cream's house immediately." She explained before leaving Sonic's mind and back into her own body.

Sonic was glad that the burning feeling was gone. "Wait, did she say something about Tails? I should go and see what she wants...Especially if it involves my little brother..." Sonic murmured before gaining his thoughts and sped back to Cream's house like the cheerful cat had instructed.

* * *

Ailyia woke up to find she was in an ambulance car but still outside of Cream's house. Ailyia yawned and got out of the bed and jumped down and began skipping to Vanilla's side. "Hiya peeps!" Ailyia cheerfully greeted.

Vanilla and Cream who were in front of the young cat jumped and turned towards her. "Y-You're alive! How? Your entire body stopped working! You died!" The paramedic was incredibly shocked at her 'revival'.

"I didn't die, I just went to visit someone. Sonic is on his way back and will be here in three, two, one." Ailyia began counting down, and immediately as she said one, Sonic turned up outside of the rabbit's house.

"Hey, what's going on here? And who's this?" Sonic asked pointing at the young cat who was older than everyone there except for the paramedic and Vanilla.

"It's me, Ailyia." She replied sweetly. "I'm glad we can meet face-to-face."

"So, you were the one in my head." Sonic said, rubbing his temples. "That really hurt you know..."

"That's only because I had to penetrate your mind. I don't have to penetrate if I have permission to enter your mind." Ailyia said with a sweet smile. "I'm sorry about that by the way..."

Sonic gave Ailyia a 'thumbs up'. "No problem. But you have my permission next time you want to tell me something."

Ailyia nodded. "Okay. Thanks!"

"So, what did you want to talk about? You said you had something to say about Tails?" Sonic asked for clarification.

The ambulance drove off, back to the hospital after Vanilla spoke at length before joining the others surrounding Ailyia. "Okay, we should go inside, I don't want anyone to hear our conversation." Vanilla nodded and opened the door, ushering everyone inside. When everyone was inside, Vanilla closed the door behind her and everyone sat down in the dining room which was closest. "Now, I understand that everyone has been wondering where Tails has been." Ailyia began, putting on a more serious face and tone. "I know exactly where he is right now and why he is there."

Ailyia began to explain everything there was to know about Tails' location and the reason for being there in the first place. After hearing all what Ailyia had to say, Sonic simply sat there, staring blankly at the dining table. "So...He's...An enemy to humans and anthromorphs...So...Does that mean I will no longer be able to see him again..."

Ailyia shook her head, tapping Sonic lightly on the back of his head with her tail. "Ivory had asked Kyro to give a message to you, about Tails' whereabouts and that he wanted to see you. He has been quite sad lately because he won't be able to see you. He misses you...A lot."

Sonic sniffed, wiping a small tear from his eye. "I miss him too...I want to see him again...That's it. I'm going there to find him."

"Not without me!" Amy cut in, standing up.

"I'm going too." Ailyia said, also standing up. "To make sure you're going the right way, of course. I'll be serving as a fighting guide. I'm quite good with the pugilistic arts."

"Alright then." Sonic nodded. "Let's go." Sonic declared, making his way out of the door. Both Amy and Ailyia followed after. Sonic began running at a speed that both Ailyia and Amy could keep up with. But each of them wondered what this would mean for them. Sonic and Amy would be venturing into the unknown and not to know what to expect, but Ailyia thought about something else...

* * *

This chapter, like the last chapter turned out to be a lot shorter than I hoped it to be. But oh well. Chapter Seven should be a lot longer, but hopefully, should be finished and up before next week's end.


	7. It's Going To Be Okay

Chapter 7 - It's Going To Be Okay...

Kyro sat huddled against a large fire he had created using magic. Tails was still asleep and Lily still had not returned from getting supplies, which began to scare the cobalt fox. They were in a unknown place crawling with monsters. They were either bound to a fate that led to an eternal crystal sleep or a fate that led to turning into a monster, living forever to prey on the human and anthro races. Kyro was scared and cold. He just wanted it to end.

A shuffling of bushes came from nearby. Kyro stood up quickly and looked to the source of the sound, only to be relieved when he found it was Lily. Kyro ran hugged and hugged the young woman. "Oh, Lily! Thank god you're back!"

Lily returned the hug. "I'm sorry I took so long. It was always hard to find edible things here in this jungle. How's Tails? Has he cried anymore lately?" Lily asked.

Kyro shook his head. "He has been asleep the whole time since you were gone. He quickly fell asleep when you left." Kyro replied, shedding a small tear.

Lily immediately sensed this and tightened her embrace. "What's wrong?" Lily asked, concerned for Kyro's mood.

"This whole situation...I...I just can't take it in...I mean...We are in an unknown place...We are bound to a fate that means eternal life as a crystal or eternity as a monster until we're freed by our race...It's just..." Kyro burst into tears, crying into Lily.

Lily sighed and gave Kyro a little kiss on the cheek. "And it's all my fault for putting you in this situation to begin with...Damn me and my curiousity...The last thing I wanted was to ruin your life...But I did so without thinking..." Lily began to shed tears of her own. Lily walked Kyro over to the fire and sat him down. "It's okay, Kyro. We will get through this somehow..." Lily consoled the emotional kit and held him close to her. She began to scratch Kyro behind the ear because he had always liked that.

Kyro giggled a little bit before closing his eyes and let the pink fox scratch his ear. Kyro yawned and easily drifted off to sleep with the comforting feeling that Lily was there, protecting him. Lily smiled, continuing to scratch the fox's ear before a snore came from him. Lily chuckled softly before giving Kyro another kiss on the cheek. "I love you my little brother, I will always be here for you...No matter what."

"I know..." Kyro replied, returning the kiss on the cheek that Lily gave him. "I love you too Sis..."

Lily smiled and bgean scratching the back of Kyro's ear once more. "Just try to sleep. We'll eat tomorrow, then leave. Goodnight, Kit."

"Goodnight." Kyro said, closing his eyes and let himself drift off. Lily smiled and leant against Kyro, falling asleep herself.

Sonic, Amy and Ailyia had made quite a bit of progress. They were already at the ruins of Robotropolis, meaning they were quite close to the south. They decided to make camp and stay the night so, they can go further tomorrow. Amy was asleep, while Ailyia and Sonic were still awake. Ailyia, like always, was still cheerful and admiring the stars in the sky. Sonic sat there and thought about his little brother. "Hey, Ailyia?" Sonic asked, finally breaking the silence.

The young cat looked down to look at Sonic. "Yes?"

"Do you think, you can go into something's mind to check on how Tails is doing, please?" Sonic asked nicely.

Ailyia smiled. "Well, since you said please." She agreed, closing her eyes and clasping her hands like she did last time, then immediately, she collapsed. Ailyia took control of a passing bird's mind and swooped down into the Ahk'To Jungle and flew around on sheer sense until they were found a couple of minutes later. Tails was in the bedroll and Kyro with Lily slept leaning against each other, in a tight embrace. "Nawww...That's adorable!" Ailyia said sweetly, before leaving the bird she took over and back into her own body. "They're still in the jungle I told you about. They're sleeping peacefully." Ailyia informed the concerned hedgehog. "And they have no injuries either."

Sonic felt a lot better when she told him how his brother was going. _"Hmm...I suppose my little bro is safe with Kyro and Ivory..." _Sonic thought, looking up to the sky.

Ailyia chuckled and continued to stare in amazement at the stars in the sky. "Wow...They're beautiful, aren't they?"

Sonic looked down to the young cat. He had never seen anyone this amazed at stars, although, they did look pretty cool to Sonic. Sonic nodded to keep the conversation going. "Yeah, they are pretty neat."

Ailyia began to unzip her grey cloak, and removed it, revealing that she was wearing a pink vest with a white sleeveless jacket. She wore a medium-sized pink skirt and small high-heeled brown boots. She sighed in relief and let herself fall to the ground. She made herself comfortable on the rocky ground and easily fell asleep.

Sonic chuckled, before saddening his expression and looking back up to the sky. "Don't worry lil' bro. I'll be with you soon...I promise..." Sonic thought out loud with a sigh.

The fog and the heat had come back to the Ahk'To Jungle and Lily already began to feel it. The female fox woke up and looked to Kyro who still had her in a tight, comforting embrace. Lily smiled and gave Kyro another kiss on the cheek. "Good morning, Kyro..." She whispered, sensing that the cobalt fox was awake.

Which he was. Kyro lifted his head and gave Lily a kiss. "Good morning. How did you sleep?" Kyro asked sweetly, keeping his embrace.

"I slept fine, thank you." Lily answered, snuggling against her brother. "And you?"

Kyro nodded. "I was able to sleep easy when you were scratching me behind the ear. That felt good." Kyro replied, doing the same.

"That was the point. It always works." Lily smirked, before breaking the embrace and standing up. "I'll cook breakfast, unless you like raw meat. I also picked some berries for a snack for the road, just in case." She said, chopping down the slim, bamboo-like trees for firewood and took them to the remains of the fire that was on last night. "Kyro? Would you mind setting the fire, please?" Lily asked, taking the meat she collected out of her bag. It had been wrapped in an old shirt so the blood of the meat wouldn't stain her bag."

Kyro nodded. "Okay." He began readying his fire and let it fly at the piled-up wood. The fireball went into the middle of the wood and exploded in flame, setting the wood on fire. "There you go, a nice fire." Kyro said before also standing up and making a stand for the meat to be cooked on.

Tails slowly opened his eyes and made a loud yawn and stretched his legs. "Morning, everyone." Tails said with a cheerful tone and smile.

"Morning Tails." Kyro and Lily greeted in unison, before looking at each other and began laughing. Tails chuckled, standing up and taking a drink out of the nearby pond.

"We should get a few more bottles of water. We will need them." Lily suggested, taking a couple out of her bag and filled them up with the fresh, clean water of the pond. "This is another good thing of the south." Lily began, filling up the two large bottles. "No matter where you go, there's always fresh, lovely water." Lily said with a yawn.

Kyro put the meat on the stand that was over the fire. He sighed in relief. "I'm glad that this stand works without getting caught alight." Kyro walked over to the pond and filled the bottles in his bag with water as well. "You know, as scared as I am right now...I'm actually excited to find out what things we're going to see here. And I know I'm safe with the both of you. You're both pretty capable fighters."

"You are too Kyro." Lily said, lightly nudging the fox's side with her elbow. "We'll all be safe if we just stick together." She spoke optimistically. "All will be fine."

Kyro and Tails nodded their heads in agreement. "So, we will be leaving as soon as we eat, right?" Tails asked, seating himself on the bedroll he was sleeping on.

Lily nodded. "Yes, we will be. We'll be able to go further if we have a full stomach and a quenched thirst." Lily put her bottles in her bag and sat down beside the fire and awaited their meal to be cooked. Kyro did the same. Tails stood up to check on the meat on the fire a couple of minutes later, to see if it was cooked.

"The meat is cooked guys." Tails said, poking the meat with his gloved finger.

"Alrighty! Let's eat!" Kyro exclaimed gleefully, stabbing the meat with Faran and brought it to the bedroll, cutting it into three equal pieces.

"Thank you for going and getting the food!" Tails spoke sweetly, beginning to eat his share.

Lily smiled with a small chuckle. "You're welcome. It took me a hell of a long time to find an animal in this jungle though. It's an ideal refuge, this place is. The fog hides your scent so you can't be sniffed out and it's dense so you can't really see that far in front of you. But the fog is supposedly poisonous to animals, but it seems we've got a resistance towards it."

"So, I guess we know where to go if we become fugitives." Kyro said chowing down on his share.

"Hmm...Yeah..." Tails muttered, now slowly eating his meat and staring blankly into the fire.

"What's wrong Tails?" Kyro asked, finishing off his meat.

"It's just the whole fugitive idea...I don't like it..." Tail answered, finishing off his.

"Well, it won't really be a problem if they don't know we're like this in the first place." Lily said optimistically. "It's not like they can sense if we're like this. And besides, the yellow in our eyes would only alert people who know about this legend and Tylkior." She also had finished off her meat and threw the bones in the fire, as did Kyro and Tails.

After a minute of silence, Lily stood up. "We're leaving now. Let's go." Lily said, beginning to walk off. Both Kyro and Tails nodded and closely followed Lily. The ground was all muddy and the trees were slimey and wet. "Hmm...That's odd...The ground is muddy and the trees are all slimey and wet...But it wasn't raining last night thought..." Lily noted, continuing to trudge through the jungle, with her blade drawn to cut off any vines that were in the way.

"Hmm...That is weird...What do you think made the trees and the ground like it is?" Kyro asked, taking out Felywin and ran his finger along the blade which made him draw blood.

"Hmm...I don't like this..." Tails murmured, taking out his whip. "It feels like something's near us...I can feel it."

"You're not alone there." Kyro responded, taking out Faran. "I can feel it too."

"Good...I thought I was going a bit crazy then..." Lily muttered, holding her blade tightly.

"You feel it too?" Kyro asked, slowing down.

Lily nodded. "Yes, I do. Proceed with caution." Lily instructed, also slowing down. Above the three anthro foxes, a large slime pile was flowing through the trees, making a lot of sound, which alerted Lily. She looked up and found the large slime right above them. "Oh, crap..." Lily muttered. "Everyone! RUN!" She screamed, running as fast as she could through the jungle.

Kyro and Tails looked up and saw the slime. Tails screamed and quickly ran. Kyro did not scream, but he did run. "Could that thing be responsible for what happened with the trees?" Kyro asked.

"It was so big and gooey!" Tails observed, panting as he ran along, trying to keep up with his two new friends.

"It must've been the one who made the dirt all muddy and the trees all slimey!" Lily yelled. "But we can't fight it here! It'd have an advantage!" Tails decided to start flying with his namesakes. He was able to go a light went off in Lily's head. "Everyone! I have an idea! We all fly up to the top of the jungle, it'll make it harder for the slime to get us then!"

"Sounds like a plan! Let's go!" Kyro agreed, twirling his twin appendages together and began to fly off. Lily did the same. The three foxes were all flying up at incredible speeds, and were out of the jungle quickly. Tails was simply amazed at what he could see. Beautiful scenery and horrific but beautiful creatures. Kyro was also simply amazed, flying agape at the astonishing view in front of them, as did Tails. Lily laughed when she saw their faces. "Hahaha! You should see your two faces!" Lily turned around to find a large slime ball flying straight at her. "Aaaaahhh!" Lily screamed, flying down and pulling Kyro and Tails with her. "It looks like the slime hasn't given up! It wants to knock us out of the sky!"

"What do we do?" Tails asked, feeling a small panicky feeling inside.

"Back in the jungle! It'll be too far away to reach us before we're out of there! Let's go!" Lily commanded, swooping down into the slim trees. Tails and Kyro followed down with her, each flying through the large jungle, weaving past trees and vines. It wasn't long before all three foxes were out of the jungle and back in the large field that they saw in the sky. The three landed on the soft grass and sat down to rest and take in the view. Flying around using their tails isn't as easy as people think it is. It takes a lot of work and strain.

Tails sighed in relief. "Wow...I can't believe a beautiful place like this still exists! This is by far, the best view I have ever taken in!"

Kyro also sighed in relief, taking in the splendid view in front of them. "Wow..." He said simply.

Lily smiled with a chuckle. "Yes, it is amazing. But we have to keep moving." Lily said with a sigh. As much as she didn't want to leave this area, she didn't want her and the two younger foxes next to her to turn into monsters to roam the lands for all eternity. "Come on, you two."

"Awww...Can't we stay for a little bit longer?" Tails whined.

Kyro nodded in agreement with Tails. "Oh, come on, don't make me beg..." Kyro pleaded, tilting his head, making a very cute expression.

Lily rolled her eyes and sat back down. "Fine. But only a little bit longer." She gave in. She could never resist when Kyro made that cute little face. "Stop acting so cute..." Liy muttered, nudging Kyro with her elbow.

Kyro blushed, leaning against his sister. "I just wanted to stay here a little bit longer."

Lily put her arm around the blue fox. "You always do that when you want something. But...I just can't resist. You're so cute."

Kyro blushed a deeper tone with a chuckle. "Thanks..." He responded, feeling a bit embarressed.

The three foxes stayed there for a few more minutes, before Lily stood up. "Come on, we're leaving now."

"Awww..." Tails whined, standing up this time. Kyro wanted to make the cute expression again, but did not want to embarress himself further, so he obediently stood up and strode alongside Lily when they started moving. "So, what is this place called?" Tails asked, trudging along the grassy area with Kyro and Lily.

Lily thought on it for a second, trying to remember what this place was called, before answering. "Well, from memory, this place is called the Hekara Steppe." Lily looked over the horizon. "But, who knows where the hell we're supposed to be going...Does anyone know what their mission was?"

There was silence for a moment when the three stopped and thought about it. Tails looked to Lily and said, "...I think...I saw it."

"What did you see?" Lily asked, interested in what the yellow fox had to say.

"I'm not quite sure...It was all kind of foggy..." Tails replied, seeming disappointed with the answer he was about to give, and a little bit scared. "But...I saw this...Giant robotic being...Looked a lot like Eggman..."

"Wait a minute...Do we all have the same mission? Because in my dream, I saw the exact same thing!" Kyro pointed out.

"I guess we do. But what do you think it is? What do you think we have to do?" Lily asked, putting her hand on her hip and looking to the other foxes.

Kyro and Tails shrugged. "Beats us." Kyro replied. "Come on! Let's go!"

Lily and Tails nodded. "Let's." Lily said simply, making to follow the enthusiastic blue fox.

The three set off through the Hekara Steppe, noticing the spectacular sights and smelling the lovely smells. Lily felt good to be back here, and with Kyro, like she promised. Kyro was scared, but excited to be there, as was Tails.

Ailyia woke up after going to someone else's mind again to see how Tails was going for Sonic. "Well Ailyia?" Sonic asked. "How is my little bro?"

Ailyia nodded cheerfully. "He's just fine. They are making their way through the Hekara Steppe, which means we have to go through the Ahk'To Jungle before being able to catch up with them."

"Isn't there another way?" Amy complained with a groan.

"Sure! If you like plunging off cliffs and breaking your neck." Ailyia replied with a cheerful but sarcastic smile.

Amy groaned again, but Sonic thought it'd be a good time and maybe a good laugh to say, "Amy, you need to take a chill pill."

"Or a happy pill." Ailyia added with a giggle, receiving a glare from the pink hedgehog.

"Yep. She definitely needs one of those!" Sonic joked, beginning to laugh, giving the young cat a high five. "Good one!"

Ailyia giggled again. "Thanks."

Amy wasn't amused, not even cracking a smile. She rolled her eyes and began walking again. "Yeah, whatever...Let's just go."

"Okay then! Let's go!" Sonic yelled enthusiastically, beginning to jog off.

"Okay!" Ailyia yelled with even more enthusiasm, skipping off ahead of the others. Amy remained at a walk. She didn't really care for Ailyia but she was angry at her self-procclaimed "boyfriend", but what could she do? Sonic is Sonic. There's no way of changing his ways.

They were met by a spectacular sight, as large dragon-like birds, flew over the three anthromorphic travellers. Sonic whistled and ran over to view the horizon, standing on a large cliff. "Woah! This place is amazing!" Sonic stood agape at the sight in front of him.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, I am happy to welcome you to the Southern continent of Taiya'ka." Ailyia introduced, holding her hands out to the horizon and feeling the breeze against her gloveless hands.

Sonic whistled again, looking down to find the large beasts of the land of the Hekara Steppe. "Nice looking creatures they got here."

"These are Kerta'a. Kertaia who fail their mission or don't do it within the time that they are given to do it." Ailyia explained, spotting three small figures out in the distance. She pointed out. "Hey! Aren't those your friends?" Sonic looked out to find a blue small figure, a pink one, and a smaller yellow one. Sonic assumed that it was Tails, Kyro and Lily. Ailyia began to call out to them. "HEY!" She called out. Her voice echoed out and reached Tails' ears. The young fox turned around, seeing a small orange figure, a blue one, and a pink one.

Tails didn't know who it was that was calling out to him and he didn't know if the voice was calling out to him, but he decided to yell back anyway. "HEY!" Tails yelled with a wave.

Kyro and Lily turned to Tails. "What are you doing? Trying to get beasts to come and get us? Come on, let's go." Lily asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, there's someone there! It might be Sonic! SONIC!" Tails called out.

Sonic immediately identfied the kit's voice and he was extremely happy to know that it was his bro, safe and sound. "TAILS!" Sonic called out to the young fox.

Tails' eyes immediately brightened after hearing his brother's voice. He called out to Sonic again and Sonic would respond.

Ailyia looked to one of the aerial beasts that dominated the skies and took out a long wire with a hook. She looked at the closest and let the hook fly at the beast. She pulled it to her once the hook was attached, as jumped on with her in control of the beast. "Come on! You want a lift to see your friend quicker?" Ailyia asked.

Sonic immediately jumped on with Amy in his arms and they were both on the beast within seconds. "Let's go at full speed!"

"Alright! You heard the hedgehog! Let's go!" Ailyia called to the beast. The bird immediately swooped down. Amy was screaming and wanting to get off, while Sonic and Ailyia were having the time of their lives. They reached Tails and the others within a minute and Sonic jumped off to hug Tails tightly.

"I missed you little bro! Why didn't you tell me you were goin' somewhere?" Sonic asked with a smile on his face.

Tails returned the hug, shedding tears of joy. "I never thought I'd see you again! I'm sorry, I should've told you."

"Pfft. Who cares? We're together now! Nothing matters anymore!" Sonic said cheerfully, tightly hugging his little brother, before breaking the hug and looking to the other two foxes ad nodding with his usual 'thumbs up' pose. "Thanks for keepin' my bro out of trouble."

Lily nodded. She might not have cared much for Sonic, but she cared a lot of Tails and was happy to see the both of them happy.

"AAAAAAHHHH! GET ME OFF THIS THING!" Amy screamed, falling off the beast and landing firmly on the ground, holding her dress.

Ailyia perched on the ground and jumped off, tapping it as a signal that it was free to go. So it did. "Hi there!" Ailyia yelled cheerfully. However, the beast came back, swooping down and flying just above the ground to attack the six anthromorphs. They immediately jumped out of the way.

"Heh. You wanna play?" Sonic yelled out to the beast. "Alright then! Let's play!" Sonic jumped out to the beast and got into a fighting stance. Lily took out her sword and stepped in beside Sonic. Tails thought it over for a second before taking out his weapon and strode along to Sonic's side. Sonic looked to his little buddy in surprise. "You sure about this lil' bro? It looks kind of tough."

Tails nodded. "You can't have all the fun forever Sonic. It's now my turn to have some too. Besides, we can have more fun with it like this."

"Hoooh yeah! Now you're talkin' lil' bro! Let's do this!" Sonic exclaimed enthusiastically. Lily looked aside at the two brothers and chuckled softly before getting into her usual stance and readied herself for battle.

"Hey! Where's my share of fun!" Ailyia complained, jumping out and taking out her grapple hook. Kyro got into his usual stance and readied a spell to assault it with magic. Even Amy stepped in, taking out her trusty Piko-Piko Hammer.

"Haha! Six people? This'll be a cinch!" Sonic said gleefully.

"Hmph. Don't forget we are in the south. The monsters here are stronger than you think." Lily warned, although thinking that it was going to be easier. However, she could not lose focus, even in a seemingly easy battle.

Sonic shrugged. "Can we save the lectures for later? There's action to be experienced!"

Ailyia nodded in agreement. "Yeah! There's an enemy to exterminate!"

Sonic made the first move by jumping up and hitting the beast several times before landing on the ground and yelling, "Oh yeah! This is going to be a hell of a lot of fun!" Except, all of a sudden, the beast whips Sonic up into the air before flipping and crushing Sonic into the ground. Lily rolled her eyes and began preparing a healing spell for the blue hedgehog. She figured it'd be a sound strategy to allow everyone else to assault the creature, while the young fox stood back and healed the wounded whenever any injuries arised.

Amy and Sonic were the melee assault team who were occupying the beast with their consecutive attacks, which was fun for the adventurous blue hedgehog, while Ailyia and Tails assaulted from further away with their ranged attacks. Ailyia was having a lot of fun with this battle, as was Tails. Kyro assaulted the beast from even further away with his magic spells of a weak element which was lightning. But Lily stood in the middle of it all, healing everyone who got hit by the beast, which happened quite a lot. It was hardest for Amy to attack the aerial creature because she wasn't as fast as Sonic and the beast was flying a lot in different places.

"WOOOHOOO!" Sonic yelled speeding after the beast when it flew in the other direction, jumping up and kicked it with several punches, before landing on the ground. The monster went in for a swoop at Sonic but it's attack and attention was interrupted by Tails' mechanical whip.

"That's right! Come to papa!" Tails said with a smirk, pulling the beast towards him.

"Tails! No!" Lily yelled. But it was too late. The beast smacked Tails up into the air and sent him flying before the beast appeared at the other side, crushing the fox into the ground with full force, making a reasonable hole in the ground. The beast flew off before falling to the ground and bled to death.

"Tails!" Sonic yelled, running towards, abruptly stopping when a bullet shot at the ground near him. It was Lily, with the customized gunblade. Sonic looked at her and she glared back. Lily put her sword away and began walking over to the now injured fox. She carefully and slowly lifted Tails into her arms and laid him carefully down on the ground. The fox was knocked unconscious by the impact with the ground.

Lily slowly and carefully examined the fox. "Well...There are no broken bones, just a few bruises and cuts, he should be fine. But, everyone take this as a sign to be focused. Even though it looks easy, you must not lower your focus. We have already had this discussion Sonic." She began walking off, leaving Sonic to pick up the unconscious fox and take care of him.

"Why didn't you just let me have a look at him?" Sonic asked, more serious now.

"You wouldn't have been calm about him. I you saw how he fell, you'd think he'd snap his neck. He's lucky to only escape with a few bruises and cuts." Lily replied.

"I would so have been calm!" Sonic argued irritably.

Amy decided to step in for Sonic. "How dare you! You uncaring..." She was cut off when Lily took out her sword and held it at her throat.

"If I were you, I'd shut my damn mouth unless you want your throat sliced." Lily threatened, before Kyro pulled her sword down.

"Don't do this...We want to be alongside them...Even if you don't like the others much, we have to get used to it." Kyro whispered. "And besides, what would Tails think?" Lily sighed and put her sword away. She looked to Amy and simply walked off. "I'm sorry about Ivory...She's been through a bit of a rough patch lately..."

"What exactly happened?" Sonic asked. "Is that how she takes all her problems?"

"No...Sometimes she's worse...That's why I always step in before someone gets hurt." Kyro replied. "You just have to give her some time and space."

"Has she ever done that do you?" Sonic asked.

Kyro sighed, lifting up the right leg of his pants to reveal a large scar that ran down his upper leg. Tails gasped. "Ouch...That must've hurt..." Tails murmured, feeling sorry for the blue fox.

Kyro let go and the leg of his pants fell down to where it was supposed to be. "I forgave Lily shortly after. It's hard to stay mad at her for me."

"If you're all done with talking about me behind my back, let's get moving." Lily said, hearing their conversation but felt bad for doing that to her little brother.

Sonic shrugged. "Let's follow her, I guess."

"I guess." Ailyia repeated, beginning to follow the female fox by skipping.

Tails looked at the female cat, raising an eyebrow. "Who is that?" The yellowish kit asked.

Sonic shrugged. "I'm not sure. Her name is Ailyia and she has the ability to possess people's minds. That's how we managed to find you. So we're very thankful for her help."

Amy grunted. "She's annoying." She complained.

"She's not annoying. She's very cheerful. There's a difference." Sonic corrected with a smirk.

Amy groaned. "Can we just go already?" She asked irritably.

"Well, unless you want to get left behind, then by all means." Lily answered with a smirk of her own.

Sonic laughed. "Even for a girl with attitude, she still has a sense of humour!" Amy rolled her eyes, and began to follow Lily with a sigh.


End file.
